Despite a hacker hitting their home page, New York Magazine has made its entire feature story on 35 women who claim Bill Cosby raped and drugged them available on Tumblr this afternoon. The feature includes portraits of each woman and individual stories from each of them.
As we reported earlier, NYMag released the cover overnight so it would spark conversation online this morning. But that plan was derailed when a hacker who claims to not like New York City says he attacked the site. As of 1 p.m. ET, the site is still not online.
The magazine found unique ways to get portions of the story online, including posting videos on Instagram. The editors eventually decided to make the entire piece available as a Tumblr post, with individual posts featuring the women’s stories.
The feature, written by Noreen Malone, took the magazine six months to put together. When she started, there were 30 women who had come forward to accuse the comedian of sexual assault. Eventually, the number grew to 46 and Malone was able to interview 35 of the accusers.
In addition, the deposition from Andrea Constand’s 2005 lawsuit was made public. In that sword deposition, Cosby outlined how he seduced women and admitted that he did obtain Quaaludes to give to women before having sex with them. Cosby’s attorneys have called the media coverage a ‘smear’ campaign, but Cosby could be forced to give another deposition since Judy Huth’s lawsuit is moving forward.
Many of the names NYMag interviewed will sound familiar. Barbara Bowman, who wrote the Washington Post op-ed last fall after comedian Hannibal Buress called Cosby a ‘rapist,’ was interviewed. Malone also interviewed models Janice Dickinson and Beverly Johnson, the highest-profile accusers so far.
You can also listen to clips from the interviews at the NYMag Instagram page.
Cosby’s attorneys did not comment on the NY Mag story.
cover from NYMag