I chose the case on public Moralist because it shows how modern public people take advantage of the poor and the disadvantaged in the society. The unfortunate people who go to ask for help or advice from these guys go through various harassments before they could get the help they wanted. Like for this case study, we find that Bill Cosby who is an entertainment superstar. The comedian has helped break racial barriers between the African Americans and the white people in America since 1960. His success in breaking the barrier was because of the show he was acting called “spy television series.” The series put Cosby in the limelight of American comedy for long as he went on to perform a series of many other movies. Despite all this praise and pride, Cosby has been taking advantage some young innocent women who had been coming to him to ask for advice on how they will advance in their careers as he had done. But to their surprise, they were forced to offer sexual favors due to the advice they got. The allegations of his sexual assault on women are seen as in 2014-2015 more than fifty women accused him of alleged sexual abuse as they claimed he had drugged and raped them. But the allegations had taken place a lot of decades ago (Johnson, 2015).
The role power played in Cosby’s sexual misbehavior
The well-known American comedian Bill Cosby is being accused of sexually assaulting some women between 1965 and 2005. The earliest incidents took place in the mid-1960s. Cosby is being charged by over 60 women. The allegations range from rape; drug helped sexual battering and sexual misconduct. The previous sexual accusations against Cosby became more public in 2014. The 79 years old who is famously known as the American dad faces the accusation from a dozen of women who may have undergone the same experience under him. The first accusation is from Andrea Constand a former employee at Temple University. The lady claims that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her when she visited him at his home at Pennsylvania home in 2004. The claim takes to three the number of felony aggravated indecent assaults Bill Cosby is facing in court (Johnson, 2015).. These cases have dented the reputation he has had over the past few years.
However, those whom he assaulted fear that the aggressive tactics used by Cosby and his power kept them from disclosing the rape cases. One accuser said that no one could have believed him and claimed that if Cosby was a local guy like others, then she might have done something. The fear of reporting the rape incidents was because Mr. Bill had large personal operations and respected lawyers. She goes on and says that Cosby could have crushed her if she had exposed him.
Costand claims that Cosby had made several sexual advances towards her, but she always turned them down until one day when he drugged her and sexually misused her. The incident occurred between mid-January and earlier February 2004 (Johnson, 2015).. Costand never told anybody about the incident for about a year, but she finally told her mom Gianna Costand. Mrs. Gianna reacted by calling Mr. Cobsy and the police in their town. Miss Costand said that fear is what had prevented her from talking about the incident for so long. The young lady says that she had to but her thoughts and feelings together before speaking it out as she had been greatly traumatized by the situation. When the case was presented before the court in 2005, it took the number of those accusing him to 13. However, the case was solved with an unnamed amount of many a year later.
Accounting for the great inconsistency between Cosby’s public moralizing and his sexual misbehavior
During his entire career, Cosby used his reputation the break racial barriers which were highly spread in the US in the 1960s (Johnson, 2015)..His did not fall into vain as he was named a racial pioneer and one of United States’ favorite television fathers.He used his famousness to speak about moral issues among the African American community.in the year 2004 he gave a speech during the celebration of the 50th birthday supreme court’s Brown V. After the occasion, a decision was made to eliminate separate schools for both blacks and whites. His speech became famously known as the pound of cake speech.Cosby blamed African American parents for poor parenting and not taking their responsibility.
He claimed those who did not take responsibility were the ones who were going around stealing from Coca-Cola. Furthermore, he claims that bad deeds done by African children were embarrassing their mothers and their families. But to our surprise is that despite all this moral mobilization among African Americans Cosby himself had serious criminal allegations in court for sexually accusing women during his times as a comedian (Johnson, 2015).. The accusations have tinted his name as he was viewed as an American father to many black Americans.The sexual indictments will tint his influence in the society. People had considered him as a black conservative and a moral spokesman.The allegations are evident as over 50 women have moved to court accusing him of sexually misusing them. The women claim that it had taken them long to take actions because they feared that Cosby would have crushed them due to his great influence among the public and assumed that nobody would have believed them if they had raised their concerns (Johnson et al. 2013).
Other cases where public image and private behaviors of leaders are in stark contrast
In our society, there are some leaders whose public life and private lives contrast greatly. For example, there are leaders who campaign for corruption free nation. They hold public rallies blaming those who are involved in corruption and even threaten to take them to court. These kinds of leaders are the ones who force the accused to step aside and give a chance for investigations whereas behind closed doors these leaders are the ones masterminding the corruption dealings. They have a great network of people who help them steal funds and powerful lawyers who protect them wherever their cases are taken to court (Johnson, 2015)..
Another case is a famous musician who has a good name and has a large number of fans. The followers see the musician as their hero and trust him greatly but behind the closed doors the artist has a lot of scandals ranging from drug trafficking, molesting of young children, adultery, and even they are not faithful to their partners. When all these scandals emerge to the public, they tint the reputation of the artist and people come to know the real character the one they had believed for that long.
Ethics of Cosby’s legal strategy
Cosby’s legal strategy was aggressive as his legal advisors oozed damaging information to the media about his confronters.The approach made those whom he had assaulted to fear and was not ready to take the matter to the court of law. If an accusation emerged, Mr. Cosby’s lawyers would come out and defend him saying that all those allegations were ridiculous, false, and illogical (Johnson, 2015).. His lawyers claimed that the women had taken many decades before taking the matter to court. Also, other accusers claim that the time all those acts were done was a different era when Cosby was powerful and had great lawyers who could defend him and nobody would have believed that Mr. Cobsy would have done such an act. By Mr. Bill is so much respected and famous many of his wrongdoing were not brought out this made him thrive for all those years without any serious offense filed against him. But the reality was that he was being involved in many incidents of wrongdoing.
The legal strategy Mr. Cobsy used was also misleading as we read that his legal advisers were leasing wrong information about the accusers (Johnson, 2015).. The wrong information was meant to make the public believe that the accusers are the ones with mistakes. After the public is against the accuser, it becomes hard for them to continue with their accusations.
Furthermore, he used his reputation and power to instill fears his accusers. Through installing distress to his accusers, Cobsy remained save for a long time. The fear left those affected traumatized for a long period without knowing where they could seek help as Bill’s reputation could not allow them to report that wrongdoing to the government officials (Johnson, 2015).
Can I continue supporting Entertainers and professional athletes because of their unethical behavior?
As much the artists and comedian entertain us and make us happy, their public life should reflect their private lives also. On my side, I cannot continue supporting this kind of entertainers as they are hypocrites. People of such kind are dangerous in our societies as they build and at the same time destroying (Johnson, 2015).. Continuing supporting will help them spread their rot to other members of society. Any professional athlete and entertainer found with an offense should be charged in a court of laws for their wrong doing.
The government should come up with laws which will prevent celebs and leaders from taking advantage of innocent people in the society. Those found guilty should be banned and if possible jailed to serve as an example. Also, the public should be enlightened on where they should report assault cases and encouraged not to fear off from reporting those who mistreat and accuse them. There should be countrywide awareness by the human rights institutions informing people about various kinds of sexual assaults that they can experience. The most affected people are the females. But since of them are not informed well they suffer internally for long periods without knowing where they will seek help (Johnson, 2015).
