What's this? This is an unbiased just-the-facts news timeline ('newsline') about Bill Cosby, created by Newslines contributors. Become a contributor

Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby162 posts

Bill Cosby is an American comedian born in 1937.

Latest News view > Click for Biography view
31 Jul, 2015

Lawyer: ‘Women have responsibility’

Interview0 Comments

Cosby’s layer, Pressley, says it is the responsibility of a sexual assault victim to report it and create evidence of the crime. She says such evidence does not exist in the case against Cosby.

The only way for a woman to get the justice that she seeks — and that, if her allegation is true, that she deserves — is to come forward [soon after the crime]. And even if the reasons that the women did not do that are legitimate ones, what cannot happen — in my opinion, in the United States — is that 40 years later there is a persecution tantamount to a witch hunt where there was no prosecution timely and there was no civil suit timely. And there’s not any testimony or any accusation from any of these women that Mr. Cosby in any way bound them, gagged them, prevented them from coming forward and saying whatever their truth was at the time. That’s not what happened.

15 May, 2015

GMA interview

Interview0 Comments

Cosby addresses the sexual abuse allegations against him on Good Morning America.

I have been in this business 52 years and I’ve never seen anything like this, and reality is the situation, and I can’t speak.

About how he sees young people reacting to the allegations:

I think that many of them say, ‘Well, you’re a hypocrite. You say one thing, you say the other’. My point is: Okay, listen to me carefully. I’m telling you where the road is out. I’m telling you where, as you’re driving, you’re going to go into water and it looks like it might only be three inches deep, but you and your car are going to go down. Now, you want to go here, or you want to be concerned about who’s giving you the message.

26 Mar, 2015

‘He tried to Cosby me’

Interview0 Comments

Handler talks about avoiding being victimized by Cosby when he invited her to his hotel room in an interview to Esquire magazine.

Not poor guy—he tried to Cosby me. Oh, I was in Atlantic City playing, doing stand-up, and he was doing stand-up in Atlantic City in the same hotel, and at like three o’clock in the afternoon, someone from the hotel came down and said, “Oh, you know, Mr. Cosby would really like to meet you up in his hotel suite.” And I thought, That’s really weird. This was like ten years ago. And I said, That’s really weird. I don’t want to go alone. I go, I don’t know him. So the three guys I was with—thank God these guys were with me. One was filming and one was like a producer; we were filming something— I brought them up with me to his room and thank God I did, because now I know what would’ve happened if I went up there alone. And I forgot about it when all the stories about Bill Cosby came out. I was like, I didn’t even think of it. Then my friend texted me the other day saying, “Do you remember that night we went up to, or that afternoon we went up to Bill Cosby’s and you were so freaked out you made us come with you?” And I said, Yeah, and he said, “Hello! You could’ve been one of his victims if we weren’t there.” And I went, “Oh my gosh . . .” Yeah, so yeah, he’s guilty… I think it’s pretty obvious now.

16 Dec, 2014

Says Cosby tried to kiss her, maintains doubt

Interview0 Comments

Gifford says that Cosby tried to kiss her when she toured with him in the 70’s, but still maintains her doubt of the sexual assault allegations against him.

I along with so many Americans and people around the world don’t want these (accusations) to be true. I will admit towards the end of the tour the last time I saw him he did try to kiss me. I said, ‘No,’ I said, ‘Bill, we’re friends.’ He said, ‘OK, good night,” and I said, ‘Good night.’ I went into my room and he went into his room. I’m not saying these women’s allegations are not true. From my own personal experiences, it didn’t happen.

15 Dec, 2014

The View interview

InterviewTV Appearance0 Comments

Goldberg speaks with Johnson regarding Cosby’s rape allegations and her memory of meeting with him at his home:

So I went to the brownstone and we had a little light um dinner downstairs and then when you go upstairs into the living quarters, um its a huge cappuccino contraption on the bar there and he said I want you to act like you were a drunk woman….

13 Dec, 2014

New York Post interview

Interview0 Comments

Cosby breaks his silence in an interview with the New York Post, asking that the media remain impartial.

Let me say this. I only expect the black media to uphold the standards of excellence in journalism and when you do that you have to go in with a neutral mind.

12 Dec, 2014

CNN interview

Interview0 Comments

Johnson tells CNN she hopes her essay in Vanity Fair, will prompt victims of sexual assault to come forward.

This, to me, is not about Bill Cosby. This, to me, is about violence against women. What I want to see happen is that women come out and speak their truth.

23 Nov, 2014

Cosby ‘fixer’ paid women

Interview0 Comments

Frank Scotti, 90, says he spent years as NBC’s ‘fixer’ for Cosby, sending money to Cosby’s lady friends and as a guard at Cosby’s dressing room door when those women visited. Cosby had a rotating lineup of young women, some as young as 16, brought to his Brooklyn dressing room by a complicit modeling agency’s owner.

She knew exactly what was going to go on. Then he’d tell me, ‘Stand outside the door and don’t let anyone in.’ Now you put that together and figure (out) why.’

Scotti claims Cosby would put women he especially liked up in apartments and give them up to $2,000 per month. He eventually walked away from the star because of how he treated women.

He had everybody fooled.

21 Nov, 2014

Receives standing ovation

Interview0 Comments

Cosby’s show in Melbourne, Florida begins with a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd. Cosby discusses a local radio station offering cash and prizes to heckle the comedian in a pre-show interview with Florida Today.

So today I was informed of this radio station that is offering money for people to stand up and heckle in order to collect prizes and money. The thing is, these people are prodding and pushing people and asking people to have a frat house mentality. Now suppose someone brings a weapon or decided to do more foolishness. There will be announcements made and the stations made some disclaimers, but what if people don’t listen to what they said and they entice violence? That’s not good for anyone.

‘A guy doesn’t have to answer to innuendos’

Interview0 Comments

Cosby discusses not speaking out about the recent sexual assault allegations leveled against him in an interview with Florida Today.

I know people are tired of me not saying anything, but a guy doesn’t have to answer to innuendos. People should fact check. People shouldn’t have to go through that and shouldn’t answer to innuendos.

20 Nov, 2014

Recounts Cosby assault

Interview0 Comments

Ferrigno, wife of Lou Ferringo, claims that she was almost sexually assaulted by the star at a party in 1967. She says Cosby lunged at her and forcefully kissed her at a party when she was just a teenager, while his wife was home.

I feel so bad for these women. I was the lucky one…I mean “lucky” in that he didn’t harm me. It harmed me emotionally all my life but he didn’t physically harm me.

19 Nov, 2014

AP releases unedited interview

Interview0 Comments

AP releases the full exchange between its reporter and the Cosbys from its November 6 interview. Cosby refuses to answer the allegations which, at that time, had come to media attention because of Hannibal Buress’ comments.

No, no we don’t answer that…There’s no response…There is no comment about that…I don’t want to compromise your integrity on that.

The Cosbys then ask the journalist and the producer to “scuttle” that part of the interview.

We thought by the way because it was AP that it wouldn’t be necessary to go over that question with you…the reason why we didn’t say that up front is because we thought that AP had the integrity to not ask.

The AP says it made no agreement to not publish the comments.

Full Cosby Exchange With AP on Allegations

‘Sexual predator’

Interview0 Comments

In an interview with The Daily Mail, Green says Cosby is a ‘sexual predator’ who, she claims, groomed her for sex and has attacked dozens more women in the past.

Bill Crosby is twisted, he’s a sexual predator who attacked me and has done the same to dozens of women that I know of. But he continues to refuse to acknowledge it, which is what angers me and the other women most. He should come clean and apologize for what he has done. To admit that the fame, the money and his own propaganda went to his head and he lost control.

She claims Cosby gave her two pills when she was sick with the flu, pretended he wanted to care for her, offered to take her home, and once there he stripped her naked, groped and kissed her before pleasuring himself sexually as she screamed for help.

I couldn’t control my body, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t run, I couldn’t do anything. I picked up a table lamp off of my night stand and through it at the window. He was like, ‘Let’s take off your clothes and get you in to bed because you’re so sick and we need to take care of you, I’m helping you.’

He put me in bed and then started taking his clothes off, I was like ‘no, no, no’. He touched me up, kissed me and he was handling himself and I’m starting to scream.’

She says she was able to fight him off:

‘I’m fighting because even if you get away with it and you don’t kill me you will have me on your a** for the rest of your natural life, I told him at the time and that’s what has happened. I was making too much noise so he gets up and he leaves two $100 bills on my table next to my door as he was leaving and that was the final insult.

‘Biting’ question

Interview0 Comments

Lemon asks Tarshis why she did not bite Cosby when he forced her to have oral sex.

Lemon: You know, there are ways not to perform oral sex if you didn’t want to do it
Tarshis: I was kind of stoned at the time and, quite honestly, that didn’t even enter my mind. Now I wish it would have.
Lemon: Meaning the using of the teeth as a weapon, right?
Tarshis: Yes, I didn’t even think of it.
Lemon: Biting
Tarshis: Ouch
Lemon: Yes. I had to ask.

17 Nov, 2014

Gives rape details

Interview0 Comments

Tarshis gives details of two situations where she alleges she was drugged and raped by Cosby to Philadelphia magazine. The first in 1969  (when she was 19) at Cosby’s dressing house, on the set of The Bill Cosby Show.

We went up to his cottage after they were done shooting. That’s when it happened. He offered me a drink. It was a red eye, a bloody mary topped off with beer. He always made the drinks; he didn’t have a bartender. And then next thing I know, I was being undressed on his couch. I was so out of it. But I remember saying to him — I thought I would outsmart him — I said, I have an infection down there, and if you have sex with me, you’re going to get it, and then your wife will know. So what did he do? He immediately switched to another orifice, which was worse.

Interviewer: So you were aware of what was happening the entire time?

Yes. He was holding me down. He’s much bigger than I am. He’s very big. I couldn’t resist. He was forceful. He definitely used force. There was nothing I could do except wait for it to be over. I was in shock.

Later, at the Westbury Music Theater in Long Island.

He picked me up in a limo. During the ride, I had something to drink in the car. I don’t remember what it was. I started to feel very woozy. Stoned.

I walked into the theater with him and the chauffeur, and we didn’t have any seats, so we were just standing backstage, and Cosby went into the dressing room. And after a while, I couldn’t stand up, I was so drugged. I asked the chauffeur to bring me back to the car. And I don’t remember anything else that happened until I woke up in the bed the following morning. Naked.

Tarshis says she did not report the incidents at the time because she did not want to upset her parents, and did not want to fight against powerful lawyers:

What could I say? I was 19 years old. I felt, He’s Bill Cosby. He’ll lawyer himself up. I don’t have a lawyer. It’s going to be he said, she said, and they’ll look at me like I’m crazy. Keep in mind that if I had come forward back then, I would have been the first one that would have said this. And God knows what his lawyers would do to me. My reputation would have been ruined. They would have said that I was there to seduce him. They would have turned the story around. And part of me was saying, hey, this guy knows a lot of big guys. Maybe they would find my body in a canyon in L.A. He became a scary guy to me.

15 Nov, 2014

Refuses to answer rape question

Interview1 Comments

Cosby refuses to answer questions regarding the accusations of sexual assault that have surfaced recently during an interview with Scott Simon of NPR. Simon:

This question gives me no pleasure, Mr. Cosby, but there have been serious allegations raised about you in recent days. You’re shaking your head no. I’m in the news business. I have to ask the question. Do you have any response to those charges? Shaking your head no. There are people who love you who might like to hear from you about this. I want to give you the chance.

19 Aug, 2014

Bill Cosby interview

InterviewTV Appearance0 Comments

Jimmy gets taken to task by Cosby over Jimmy’s impressions of him on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, you were here. Did James Fallon do his imitation of a certain person, we’re not naming any names. Did he do verbal faces?