Bill Cosby Is Back in the News Again

Good morning, and welcome to Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Today is National Cocktail Day.

Today in History: 

1721 Johann Sebastian Bach dedicates his Brandenburg Concertos to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt.

1837 Canada grants its black citizens the right to vote.

1883 First telephone call between New York City and Chicago.

1910 83°F in Cleveland, the highest temperature ever recorded there in March.

1941 Glenn Miller begins work on his first movie, Sun Valley Serenade, starring Sonja Henie and John Payne, for 20th Century Fox.

1947 US Congress proposes two-term limitation on the presidency.

1964 The Kennedy half-dollar is issued.

1978 Wings release the single "With a Little Luck."

1989 The Exxon tanker Valdez spills 10.8 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound, near Tatitlek, Alaska.

Birthdays Today include Andrew Mellon (Mellon Bank), industrialist and secretary of the treasury (1921-32); magician Harry Houdini; Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, American silent film actor; Thomas E. Dewey, governor of New York and Republican presidential candidate (1944, 1948); Malcolm Muggeridge, English journalist, critic and spy; Clyde Barrow, American bank robber and outlaw (Bonnie and Clyde); Joseph Barbera, cartoonist;  Norman Fell, American actor; Steve McQueen, actor; Carol Kaye, bassist (the Wrecking Crew); R. Lee Ermey, American actor (Full Metal Jacket — Gunnery Sergeant Hartman); Lee Oskar (Levitin), Danish rock and soul harmonica player (War - "Why Can't We Be Friends?," "Low Rider"); and Tommy Hilfiger, American fashion designer. 

If today is your day, too, Happy Birthday!

* * *

I See Bill Cosby is back in the news again. From Fox last night:

 The former "Cosby Show" star was also ordered to pay $59.25 million in damages – $17.5 million for her past mental trauma and an additional $1.75 million for mental suffering Motsinger may experience in the future. She will also receive $40,000,000 in punitive damages.

Cosby's lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, confirmed in an email to The Associated Press that they are disappointed by the verdict, but fully intend to appeal the decision.

Motsinger accused Cosby, now 88, of drugging and raping her in 1972 while she was working as a server at The Trident, a popular restaurant in Sausalito, Calif.

I certainly take accusations of rape seriously, but one has to wonder why it took 54 years for these charges to come to the fore. Certainly if concern about sexual assault were really the sole issue, these things would have come to light several years ago. The huge sums involved seem to be the driver here.

Personally, I came to some conclusions on the matter many years ago. I maintain to this day that the continuous string of prosecutorial fervor against Cosby was and remains a political act, aimed at silencing someone who was operating outside of, and was therefore an impediment to, the leftist narrative.

Now, before you break out the torches, tar and feathers for my comments here, read the whole thing. We’ve seen this shift from the left, from publicly loud, constant, and frankly suspicious protection to abandoning the subject outright before. Under what conditions that shift occurs is instructive, I think. A few examples right off the cuff:

 Does anybody remember the name Jim Traficant? There’s someone who ended up being prosecuted largely because he opposed his fellow Democrats in the House once too often.

Then there’s former Sen. Robert Menendez. The man was essentially corrupted on day one and everyone knew it, and yet not only did the Democrats put up with him, they actually defended him until the smell got bad enough after 18 years in office to lead them to cut him loose.
 
Let’s not forget former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the Lesser. I’ve always been of the opinion that since the sexcapades were going on for many years, the real downfall was sticking COVID-19 patients in with the elderly in nursing homes across New York State. No worries about killing off the old folks. They’d just be voting Republican anyway. 

The sex thing served to get rid of him, and yet shielded the rest of his administration from the stigma of that poor choice about COVID-19. At the time the cases against him broke, he was considering a run for the presidency on the Democratic ticket... as was Hillary Clinton. While he did say he was not going to run if Hillary Clinton did, apparently that wasn't enough for some powerful people, and one powerful person in particular. 

On the other hand, let’s consider Bill “I didn’t have sex with that woman” “you better put some ice on that” Clinton, and Joe “Uncle Fondle" Biden. For all the evidence, some of it even photographic and publicly displayed, there’s been no move to prosecute either one.

There’s a host of other Democrats, of course, who have been revealed as being on the Epstein list, that they hardly speak of at all. The silence has been palpable once they discovered the files showed no case against their real target… (Donald Trump), and instead, revealed a list of Democrats that would keep the Democrat party out of power for decades. But nobody's getting hauled into court over it. The differences in treatment afforded these people give credence to the idea that you are immune from prosecution so long as you’re not an impediment to the far left’s agenda.

It is impossible, given these comparisons, to avoid the conclusion that Democrats use the criminal justice system as a tool to a political end. What politics? In this case, Cosby’s attacks on the overreaching civil rights movement as it has developed over time. His attempts to properly question the role of the black family, that it had to share the blame for the high arrest and conviction rates of black youth, for example:

I submit that a good portion of the reasoning behind the left protecting Cosby until recently, as they did these others, is rather simple. Namely, this is payback for having gone after the race-baiting industry, as he has famously done. Occam’s straight razor would seem to apply to this situation very nicely.

An example is harder to create than a martyr is. But the effect is pretty much the same in opposite ways. And as we have discovered over the last 30 years or so, in neither case is the truth a requirement. All that’s required is continuous, loud repetition. (Among the many examples of this would be the Russia Hoax against President Trump, as well as the charges of pedophilia. Lots of accusations, yet no proof.) To create a bad example, one has to spend literally decades tarring the name of the chosen example as being a bad person. Rumors have to fly, innuendo, and so on.

In the case of Cosby, think of it this way: With him being in his late 80’s now, he’s probably not going to be around for a whole bunch longer. So why bother with all this effort? Do you plan to dig him up again after he’s gone and prop his corpse up in a jail cell? 

If not, then, the purpose is at the very least that he become a cautionary tale for anyone considering speaking up against the race baiters and hustlers on the left. The Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of the world. 

It seems clear to me that the purpose here is to keep others people from speaking out as he did. Put another way, is all this about justice, or is it rather about longterm containment of opposition to the leftist ideology?

Make no mistake: his being a black man whom the majority of America actually liked has a direct connection with him being torn down as he’s being now. There’s an example being made here.

Even talkmaster Neil Boortz (now retired from WSB, Atlanta) commented at the time, and I quoted back in 2004 (the link to his column, and indeed his old website, are now gone):

You have to wonder, though, whether or not these charges against Bill Cosby might have anything to do with Cosby’s recent comments about dominant black culture in the United States. His words have surely stung a lot of people who are used to blaming their shortcomings on white racism.

I remind you also that the string of sex charges Cosby’s been dealing with started piling up on him just about the time he was being considered for the top job at the NAACP. That is a move that most certainly would have shifted the group away from its perpetual hard-left positions. Do you suppose there’s a connection there?

Look at this from the opposite end. Postulate that as opposed to the upstanding man that he had seemed to have been all these years (remember, the man was wildly popular from from 1962 or so forward), Cosby were instead a race baiter like Al Sharpton, for example. I submit to you, these situations would have been called “bimbo eruptions,” and they would have been summarily laughed off. See also, Bill Clinton, our first black president. Get the picture?
 
Now, look. I can hear the usual suspects warming up already, so before you start in on me, let’s be clear about this. I do not suggest guilt or innocence based on what I speak of here. That’s not my point. Read that part again. Let it soak in.

As Clinton and Biden etc., etc., and the other cases as I mentioned above show us clearly, guilt or innocence are not the primary motivations with these things. I have held for a long time the suspicion that guilty or innocent, the left no longer steadfastly protecting Cosby is the price for being “too white,” or as Joe Biden once put it in a different context, Cosby “ain’t black.” Funny, isn’t it, how often “he ain’t black” translates to “he ain’t liberal.”

Thought of the Day: “There aren't any great men. There are just great challenges that ordinary men like you and me are forced by circumstances to meet." — Admiral William Halsey

Take care of yourselves today. I'll see you tomorrow.

 PJ Media's investigative reporting and honest analysis, which you can't get anywhere else, are why it's important to become a VIP. Not only do you support the reporters and writers who support YOU, but you also get 60% off the regular price by going to this link and using the promo code FIGHT.