Cosby Allegations Continue – CNN Host Sinks Teeth In

To date, at least 10 women have publicly come forward with their accounts ofBill Cosby suffering sexual assault at the hands of comedy icon Bill Cosby, now aged 77. Rumours have been circulating for decades, but charges have never been pursued despite a police investigation in 2004. That investigation ended in 2005 when Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor announced that there was “insufficient credible and admissible evidence” to place criminal charges. The case was headed to a civil court where 13 women were prepared to testify, but the case was settled out-of-court. It should be noted that out-of-court settlements do not necessarily indicate guilt, but often an unwillingness by either party to continue with a case. The statute of limitations means that victims only have a relatively short window of a few years in which to decide to press charges, meaning other victims may not be able to proceed with charges against Cosby if their assault occurred more than 4-6 years ago (the statue of limitations varies from state to state).

In recent days model Janice Dickinson and Carla Ferrigno (yes, that’s The Hulk actor Lou Ferrigno’s wife) have added their names to the list of women coming forward, along with journalist Joan Tarshis. Tarshis’ appearance on CNN has resulted in social media backlash, as a result of the insensitive questions asked by interviewer Don Lemon. During the interview Lemon asked Tarshis to share details of the assault, and she responded that the comedian had given her a drink and forced her to give him oral sex. She was 19 at the time of the assault. Lemon continued to probe, and in doing so ‘victim-blamed’ Tarshis, by saying “There are ways not to perform oral sex” and later further clarifying that she could have used her teeth to deter Cosby.

After the interview aired, Twitter began to light up with tweets showing their disgust at Lemon’s blatant victim-blaming. Soon, the hashtag #DonLemonReporting began to trend on the social media site, as users tweeted about various events in history as though Don Lemon was reporting on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, there were some that used the hashtag to place blame on the victim, including this one:

 

This Twitter user succinctly summed up the situation:

Lemon addressed his misstep the following day:

It’s great to see that so many pointed out the error in Lemon’s handling of the interview. We clearly need to continue to educate society on who is truly and solely responsible for committing sexual assaults – the one committing the crime, not the victim.

Thankfully, Canadian law allows victims of assault to come forward to authorities at any time, which could result in the investigating authority laying charges.

Matt Signature

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