Hey, happen to notice all those many conservatives rushing to defend Bill Cosby from yet more accusations of sexual assault? Hmm, neither have I, come to think of it. These ephemeral figures apparently exist solely in the fervid imagination of Bill Carter, television critic of the New York Times, at least for the time being.
During a Nov. 15 interview on the NPR show "Weekend Edition," Cosby was asked about the allegations by host Scott Simon. Cosby shook his head and declined to respond. His lawyer has said the allegations are false.
The Times' Bill Carter, appearing Wednesday on NPR's "Here & Now," said 15 women have alleged sexual assault by Cosby, with five of them women identifying themselves. Carter also gratuitously injected politics into the conversation, specifically citing radio host Rush Limbaugh, in a way that came across as strained and disingenuous (audio) --
CARTER: These are very old charges, I have to say, they're two decades old. But, you know, they're consistent. They're the same story again and again and again with a lot of different women and that tends to give it credibility.
HERE & NOW HOST JEREMY HOBSON: Yeah, and you said it, Bill Cosby, America's dad. Many of us grew up with him, watched him for years on television. What are we hearing from his fans today?
CARTER: Well, you know, most of his fans are in shock, the people who really, you know, loved his show and loved him. What I hear from them is real shock, they can't believe this. There's a very odd thing that's going on between conservatives and liberals in this thing. Cosby, all of a sudden, became something of a darling of some conservatives because he was speaking out against, uh, some black culture that they felt was, you know, you know, bad for families and things like that and he got support from like Rush Limbaugh over that. So he's been getting some weird support in the conservative community but I have not really seen much else that's come forward and I think most of the people who really followed him, his career and admired him as a comedian first have sort of backed off big time now.
"Weird support" -- oh right, seeing how conservatives simply can't hide their enthusiasm for sexual assault, this being yet another front in their endless war on women.
Carter is on the mark except for one pivotal word here -- "getting." It would have been accurate of Carter to say that Cosby has "gotten" support from conservatives over the years for pointing out that two-thirds of black children born out of wedlock will lead to all manner of pathology. Did Carter think it "weird" when President Obama lamented the absence of fathers from too many black families?
To reinforce his point that it's only those oddball conservatives rushing to Cosby's defense these days, Carter added that he had not seen "much else" along these lines. Perhaps the next time he weighs in on this, Carter can elaborate, at the very least with a tweet or two to bolster his argument.
Limbaugh, by the way, has spent little time talking about Cosby of late -- until yesterday when he mentioned Carter's appearance on NPR. "I don't know of any support Bill Cosby is getting in these latest allegations of rape from anybody, much less from the conservative community," Limbaugh said on his show. "Do you? ... Everybody's running as fast as they can from this story 'cause they don't know anything about it and they're probably, my God, if they can go after Cosby, who's ... but we haven't said a word about this."
Limbaugh said he recalled praising Cosby's remarks from a speech in Indianapolis a decade ago -- "and by the way when Cosby was told of that he wasn't happy. Cosby is not a fan of mine, for whatever reason, even now."
