Camille Cosby, who has been married to comedian Bill Cosby for five decades, sent a statement to the media Monday afternoon, her first comments since women began to come forward with allegations of sexual assault against her husband. In her statement, she blasts the media and compares coverage to the controversial Rolling Stone UVA story.
The statement was first posted by CBS News. In it, Camille says writes that, “The man I met and fell in love with, and whom I continue to love, is the man you all knew through his work.” She calls him a “wonderful husband, father and friend,” adding, “He is the man you thought you knew.”
She continues, accusing the media of giving the over a dozen women who have accused Cosby a free pass:
“A different man has been portrayed in the media over the last two months. It is the portrait of a man I do not know. It is also a portrait painted by individuals and organizations whom many in the media have given a pass. There appears to be no vetting of my husband's accusers before stories are published or aired. An accusation is published, and immediately goes viral.”
Then, she compares coverage of Cosby to that of the Rolling Stone UVA rape story, which fell apart since the magazine didn’t talk with the alleged victim’s attacker:
“We all followed the story of the article in the ‘Rolling Stone’ concerning allegations of rape at the University of Virginia. The story was heart-breaking, but ultimately appears to be proved to be untrue. Many in the media were quick to link that story to stories about my husband - until that story unwound.”
“None of us will ever want to be in the position of attacking a victim. But the question should be asked - who is the victim?”
Cosby himself spoke out over the weekend in an interview with the New York Post. He said he expects the black media to “go in with a neutral mind” and that the “love and the strength of womanhood” is helping him get through this.
However, this interview is now at the center of a controversy itself, since Cosby attorney John P. Schmitt told USA Today that Post reporter Stacy Brown did not tell Cosby that he was writing for the Post or that he was recording the call.
“I'm not going to argue with him or the statement,” Brown told USA Today. “But the call was so brief. It was two minutes. It just wasn't a thing where I could say at the end, 'Is this something you mind if I share?”
The latest woman to allege that Cosby drugged her is supermodel Beverly Johnson.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com