Oh gosh, it’s almost as bad as having an honorary professorship withdrawn. Disney is removing a statue of Bill Cosby from one of its parks.
Disney will remove a statue of Bill Cosby from its Hollywood Studios theme park, a spokeswoman for the company said Tuesday, following revelations through court documents that support multiple allegations that the veteran comedian drugged multiple women before sexually assaulting them.
The bust of Cosby, located alongside representations of celebrities like Lucille Ball and Oprah Winfrey in Disney’s Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame Plaza, will be taken down after the park shuts at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Are there cries of “witch hunt” and “lynch mob” yet? Are there open letters and petitions beseeching Disney to put it back? Has Richard Dawkins added his name?
Several companies and businesses are now trying to distance themselves from Cosby, following the release of documents showing that he admitted, during a sworn testimony in 2005, to buying Quaalude, a powerful sedative, with the intention of giving it to women before having sex with them.
Before raping them, that is.
Actually, I suspect that the Usual Skeptics will instead declare that this is the new Standard by which all other cases be judged. If the man doesn’t admit to it under oath, the accusations should be dismissed. Also, it will help them believe the accusations if he’s black.
(Some days, my cynicism wakes up a few hours before I do.)
They’re so timid about using the actual term for what Cosby was planning: rape. I realize that’s a criminal charge and thus grounds for libel or something if it hasn’t been proven in court, but if the women were to be sedated by a powerful sedative, there’s no way anyone could regard this as a scenario where they were actually giving informed consent.
And what does Cosby’s WIFE think about all this???
Ozymandias? Nah. I was thinking more Sandusky/Paterno combined. Penn State fanboys didn’t say “witch hunt”, but they acted and talked as if Paterno were a victim rather than an accessory.
But it was a staaaaaaatuuuuuuuue.
“I am Ozymandias, king of kings, gaze upon my works ye mighty and despair!”
The guy was probably quite boring at dinner parties
Meanwhile, Whoopi is still sagely reminding us it’s ‘innocent until proven guilty’…
Well, I mean, she has a point. There totally are perfectly rational explanations as to how he could have given that statement, which, even in the context of several dozen women testifying as to his MO involving pills, could still mean he’s innocent…
(/That being alien mind control… No, let me explain…)
If one is socially damaging to communities, communities tend to want to remove social connections to you. It makes perfect sense. No wonder the other side relies on hyperbole and outrage while ignoring larger patterns in society affecting women and female people.
Your post title is perfect, Ophelia.
Don’t forget, she defended Roman Polanski–and there was no question about his guilt–because (sed she) what Polanski did to that 13 year old wasn’t “rape rape.”
There are going to be more revelations; that’s how it’s going to happen as the lawsuits continue. Anyone who is still supporting Cosby is just setting themselves up to look worse. I suppose Whoopi doesn’t care but she’s pre-ordering a big plate of crow.
@ 5 newenlightenment
He certainly doesn’t look that lively.
(Trivia: that really is a photo of Ozymandias)
Ophelia (#4) –
I don’t know if you were responding to me, but I was referring to a joke told about the sex abuse scandal at Penn State and the decision not to remove Paterno’s statue: