Betrayal of Trust, by Mike Gold – Brainiac on Banjo #382 | @MDWorld

November 24, 2014 Mike Gold 5 Comments

Nancy Grace thinks I’m no fun.

I’m a firm believer in the “innocent until proven guilty in a court of law” mime. Unless I’ve seen something with my own eyes and I’m certain what I’ve seen encompasses all that happened, I’ll wait for the courts to decide.

The problem with this particular story is, there will be no criminal court action here to establish Bill Cosby’s guilt or innocence… or both.

I’d be surprised if there wasn’t any civil action – lawsuits – but the standards in civil court are far, far lower than those in criminal court. To my observation, most lawsuits that go all the way to a jury are won or lost on the abilities of the attorneys involved, the defendant’s ability to pay for depositions and such, the behavior of the judge, and the temperature of the jury. This is because the only thing involved in a civil action is money; nobody’s going to be denied his or her freedom. Usually, the only people who make out on these things are the lawyers.

Be that as it may, in the court of public opinion we now have, on one side of the scale, the presumption of innocence and the public’s affection for Mr. Cosby, and the logic of “geez, how can all of those women be lying” on the other side. And that’s a valid point, albeit not definitive. Logic is not necessarily evidence, and it is possible all those women could be lying… but without evidence of an organized conspiracy (in my world, that’s not a redundancy) it almost defies imagination.

This sucks. Damn near everybody who is reading these words grew up being entertained by Mr. Cosby. I was 12 years old when I purchased his first comedy album. I was 16 when he (and producer Sheldon Leonard and NBC) broke the race barrier by casting a black man in a starring position on a network television series. I lied my way into a nightclub, Mr. Kelly’s, to see his stand-up. I even talked with him at the Playboy mansion, for crying out loud.

So there is a strong sense of sadness and even betrayal at these horrible accusations of rape, molestation, drugging… It’s almost beyond comprehension.

It’s unfortunate (and understandable) that his alleged victims took so long to come forward. By waiting, they denied everybody the opportunity for vindication and they may have allowed a rapist to continue harming others. It takes a lot of courage for men and women who have been victims to come forward. It takes a lot of fortitude at a point in time when such strength may be lacking. But let’s not conflate a lack of prosecution with innocence. At best, it’s a push.

Several decades ago, Cosby started morphing into his cranky old man identity and that alienated some folks. Um tut sut. He’s entitled to his opinions. But, damn, I’ll tell you something: go watch one of his recent – and lengthy – comedy routines. You’ll see a massive display of genius and brilliant technique. He launches so many threads that you think he’s gone senile… but, magically, by the time he finishes he’s tied them all together and you’ve been laughing all the way.

Right or wrong, that voice is now stilled. Even if that is entirely his fault, that’s a serious disappointment.

Under different circumstances, Mr. Cosby would appreciate the irony. Now kids can tell him to raise his trousers up.

Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com and on iNetRadio, www.iNetRadio.com as part of “Hit Oldies” every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check www.getthepointradio.com above for times and on-demand streaming information. Gold also joins MDW’s Michael Davis and Martha Thomases as a weekly columnist at www.comicmix.com where he pontificates on matters of four-color.