Gawker explain why they dredging up old Cosby's sex abuse allegations

Newsweek, Gawker explain why they dredged up Cosby's sex abuse allegations
Feb. 13, 2014, 9:25 AM EST

By James Crugnale

MEMPHIS TN (IFS) -- It must be a slow news day at NewsWeek and Gawker these days.  Or is it because Dr. William Cosby has a new NBC Sitcom and they just want to tear it down early, before it gets off the ground and starts running up the Nielsen Rating Charts.  Or maybe, they just want to join the 'haters club', for there is nothing else to do. -KHS
TheWrap

As Woody Allen's alleged sex abuse accusations are rehashed this month, several media outlets are also dredging up old allegations made against legendary funnyman Bill Cosby.

Gawker's Tom Scocca recently decided to unearth old claims made against the comedian, who has a brand new NBC sitcom in the works. "Who Wants to Remember Bill Cosby's Multiple Sex-Assault Accusations?" has garnered over 200,000 page views.

Also read:  Bill Cosby Tapped to Star in Family Comedy at NBC

Cosby has not been charged with any crimes. He settled a lawsuit in 2006 with a woman who claimed the entertainer drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home outside Philadelphia.

Inspired by the Gawker article, Newsweek reporter Katie Baker decided to follow up with women who were involved in the suit. Baker interviewed Tamara Green on Friday. Tuesday, she published an interview with Barbara Bowman,who offered more graphic details about her allegations.

"I found them from the story — and called them and asked if they wanted to talk," Baker told TheWrap. "I wanted to hear what it was like to accuse Bill Cosby of this and then have it forgotten. I wanted to reach out and see what its like to have your story ignored."

See photos: Bill Cosby's Getting Another Sitcom: 10 Other TV Dads Who Adopted a New Family

NBC declined comment to TheWrap on the state of Cosby's sitcom, which is in the development stages. A spokesman for Cosby also had no comment.

Scocca told TheWrap he wrote about Cosby because he was surprised the allegations had disappeared down "a memory hole." They were raised before Twitter made it much easier for accusations to spread quickly.

"It seemed weird that the Allen case had become something people were being newly appalled about, when it had been there for people to be appalled by all along, if they'd chosen to remember it," Scocca explained. "That raised the questions of what other terrible allegations against famous people had fallen into a similar memory hole, which made me vaguely recall that there'd been some claims against Bill Cosby. And when I went back to refresh my memory on those Cosby accusations, I realized that they were really grim and well-attested, with multiple people independently claiming to have been victimized by him, all describing the same profoundly predatory m.o. But after he settled that one lawsuit, everybody just forgot about it."