Bill Cosby Speaks Again in Bizarre Interview
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This is a truly bizarre interview with Bill Cosby.
Lindsey Davis asks Cosby, “If a young person were to come up to you and say my mom says you did some bad things….are you guilty, did you do it, are the allegations true? What would you say?”
Bill Cosby rambles on and says absolutely nothing coherent. I am sure a lot of people are scratching their heads.
Cosby says, “I am prepared to tell this young person the truth about life. I’m not sure that they will come like that. I think many of them say, ‘Well, you’re a hypocrite. You say one thing, you say the other. “My point is, ‘OK, listen to me carefully. I’m telling you where the road is out. You want to go here or you want to be concerned about who is giving you the message?'”
At this point, we have to wonder, is the “King of Attention” breaking under the stress of his exposure and mentally flipping? Or do we have the “King of Manipulation” playing another game on us?
Both are entirely plausible options!
I do not have enough information from this interview to tell you. I would need to observe Cosby further to say with any certainty. Does he speak to the students in Alabama today as intended and come across totally normal? If he does, then we know we have our answer!
What do you think?
Oh, he’s definitely a master manipulator! He’s so full of himself, he’s actually saying here the terrible things he’s done don’t matter, because his “message” is so much more important (this is what he means by saying “the road is out, don’t you want to know that regardless of the messenger”). He thinks he is so important to the world that he’s above reproach. Chilling!
I think he is BOTH cracking under pressure and using manipulation techniques to cope and manage the situation.
“I’m telling you where the road is out. You want to go here or you want to be concerned about who is giving you the message”
IMO – he is basically saying that his “message” has value even if he as the messenger is flawed. He’s saying – don’t look at my actions, just listen to my message.
This is an admission in my book!
(FWIW I believe he is guilty of all the accusations.)
Also it’s very manipulative of him to put the burden of responsibility on the people speaking to him. Telling them what to pay attention to and what not to pay atttention to. Telling them what is and should be important to them. Oh brother!!
Exactly. I am not seeing any outrage or sadness for being falsely accused, he just comes across as trying to come up with excuses for why people should sweep the accusations under the carpet. Look at me and all the good I’m doing to the black kids in this poor community, you can’t condemn me for forty measly rapes if I can help your kids graduate high school.
It reminds me of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XHCM7t1fkc
This is the worst case of beating around the bush that I have ever heard. I think he is trying to sound like he made some mistakes that didn’t look too serious at the time, but he got into deep water over them. He seems to be trying to look like he is using his mistakes as a teachable lesson to the young. I am not sure what he is saying, but he is certainly not saying, “I didn’t rape those girls.” I sense that he is trying, however to gain some sympathy for trying to use his mistakes for the good of young people. It is hard to have any forgiveness or sympathy for someone, who is not being upfront and honest with you. First, has to come honesty and true sorrow over what a person has done, and we don’t get that here.
I didn’t think he’s using his mistakes as a teachable lesson really… He never admits to committing any mistakes here as far as i’m concerned. I took his deep water comments as saying that listening to his speeches can save the kids’ lives and cars as they figuratively stop driving into too deep water and ruining future when they hear Bill Cosby saying pull up your pants and school is good for you etc.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think he is trying to help kids, here. I do wonder if he is trying to make it sound that way to save some face. He is trying to turn negatives against him into positives to get people’s minds off of the bad he is accused of.
There is always some good and some bad in most people, and he is trying to point us toward the good, but he is just digging the pit he is in a little deeper. People don’t like being manipulated.
I don’t disagree with any of that, of course he’s trying to save face and direct attention from the allegations (hey look i care about kids’ education i can’t be a bad guy) it was just the part about trying to use his own mistakes as a teachable lesson that I disagreed with
Not seeing him admitting to any mistakes there, he’s just (slightly grandiosely?) trying to portray himself and his speeches as the only thing that can save kids from ruining their lives. If you love your car you have to listen to me and forget that I might be a serial rapist. If you reject me you will ruin your life for sure, that sort of thing. It’s an argument from fear.
I watched the video here:
http://www.tmz.com/2015/05/15/bill-cosby-nightline-interview-sexual-assault-allegations-rape-video/
As far as I’m concerned this was as close to a confession as you can get without ever mentioning the allegations directly. He’s asked, .”are you guilty, did you do it, are the allegations true? What would you say?” and he starts promisingly, “I am prepared to tell this young person the truth…” but no, he is not talking about the truth about the allegations, he goes on to say “about life.” What a disappointment. He’s just willing to talk about some general truths, like “education is good for you” and things of that nature and skirts the rape issue altogether.
Then he goes on, “I’m not sure that they will come like that.” Yeah I suppose if he was sure that all the kids were going to accuse him of rape he wouldn’t have gone there.
” I think many of them say, ‘Well, you’re a hypocrite. You say one thing, you say the other.”
But oh Bill, that is not the point at all. The problem is not what you SAY or that you SAY two opposite things at once, the problem is the things that you (allegedly) have DONE. He is minimizing. He can’t bring himself to say the words serial rapist, so he’s trying to make this whole issue sound a lot smaller by making it just about hypocrisy. Well but hypocrisy is not illegal. Drugging and raping people are. What about your response to those accusations?
“My point is, okay, listen to me carefully. I’m telling you where the road is out. I’m telling you where, as you’re driving, you’re gonna go into water, and it looks like it might only be three inches deep, but you and your car are gonna go down. Now you wanna go here? Or you wanna be concerned about who’s giving you the message?”
So basically to me here, he’s saying that as long as someone is giving the kids some advice that they might find useful in their lives, they should not care that he is a bad person. (implying he’s a bad person..?) if you don’t want to flood your car you need to ignore forty sexual assaults/attempts.
But he avoided answering the original question altogether. (are you guilty, did you do it, are the allegations true?) How freaking hard can it be to say, no I didn’t do it, if you didn’t?
Then he is asked if he’s at all concerned that the allegations may overshadow his message. And he responds quite incoherently. Someone called it dadaist poetry.
“I’ve been in this business 52 years. I’ve never seen anything like this. And reality is the situation. And I, I can’t speak.”
Reality is the situation. What? Is he saying that he’s really surprised that this situation is his reality now although he’s never seen anyone in showbiz been accused of 40 rapes before? But none of that responds the question. Is he concerned or is he not?
Personally I think he’s more concerned about his reputation at this point than the school kids. This sounds like a PR stunt highlighting his charitable work and trying to make the whole scandal appear a race issue See here http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/alabama/2015/05/15/bill-cosby-finds-supportive-crowd-selma/27413985/
‘and here
http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/05/cosby.html
Then he was asked what he would like his legacy to be and his responses were again a bit off topic. Instead of saying that he’d like his name to be cleared of the rape allegations and wants to be remembered he just talks about wanting to work on television some more .
“I really know about what I’m going to do tomorrow. I have a ton of ideas to put on television about people and their love for each other.”
Oh, mentioning people’s love for each other. Nice touch, Dr. Huxtable. You must be a good person.
(but is that even true that he really knows what he’s going to do tomorrow? I suppose he could have ideas but is anyone buying anymore?)
‘The whole Nightline episode here: http://abc.go.com/shows/nightline/listing/2015-05/15-nightline-051515-bill-cosby-breaks-silence-after-sexual-assault-allegations
I’m unable to watch.
[QUOTE]
“I can’t speak on that,” the 77-year-old told reporter Lindsey Davis about his treatment in the media since women started publicly accusing him in mass last year. “I just don’t want to argue. I don’t want to talk about.”[/QUOTE]
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/bill-cosby-nightline-cryptic-interview-accusation-article-1.2224486%5BQUOTE%5D
Cosby insisted he wants to sidestep all the rape talk and stay focused on his career.[/QUOTE]
That is so nice. Everyone should have a choice to sidestep all the distracting talk about the crimes they committed and stay focused on their career :rolleyes:
Sounds like he is saying: the water is much deeper than you think AKA: You can’t handle the truth!
After listening to his response– It sounds like he is saying that the truth of life is that many people were doing what he is accused of. The shallow water of his behavior is merely a few inches of water in a very deep well of similar behavior by many others at the time. His response also has an edge of threat-perhaps one could drown in that deep well AKA you can’t handle the truth!
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/bill-cosby-breaks-silence-sexual-assault-allegations-31088681
there are little clips from the school and some more interview material here
Some interesting insights about the video here http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/bill-cosby-denial/55550ec32b8c2ab00000016e
Thanks for the huff post link. The legal angle was very enlightening.
Yes legal information was useful making it seem more likely that Mr Cosby is just playing another game on us.
This makes me angry. He has completely gotten away with rape.
Meanwhile Paula Dean said a slur word (which we all use in some manner) and was fired and ridiculed like crazy.
But rape, no big deal. Let’s still see his shows and support him.
I am so disappointed in the world we live in.
Not much different than Michael Jackson.
We all would be freaked if our 45 yr old neighbor invited our kids to sleep over in his bed. But Michael Jackson does it is now “normal”. And ignore the fact he has a warning bell that rings by his bed if someone enters the hall towards his bedroom. That’s nothing to be concerned about either. We all have that.
Rapist…child molestor….still supported.
Used the N word years ago, take her down.
So so so disappointed in the world we live in.
That wife of his too.. something spring with her. To sit there with her big ole smile while he avoids the question (older video). What is wrong with you. I would be more like Tiger Woods ex wife. My crazy would come out. I would be breaking something, hitting him. Not sitting there with a big ole proud wife smile next to my rapist..
Interesting now I see his speech as basically veiled intimidation.
It’s easier to see if you imagine yourself as the young person asking Cosby the question. His response contains insinuation.
Cosby is saying ‘I’m warning you. Now do you want to head into disaster by going forward with this or do you want to think about who you heard this from (inferring that maybe the source is at fault).
We saw his intimidation before in another interview where he tried to scuttle the end section of a video and this seems to be another case of it.