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Rewriting Bill Cosby’s History

He's a bad man, but deserves to stay in the TV Hall of Fame
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Look, I am very, very happy that Bill Cosby was convicted of drugging and raping that woman. I believed that he did it to many women, and I’m pleased that justice, in at least one case, was served.

I am also really sad that this is who Bill Cosby turned out to be.

But this is wrong:

In addition to Yale and other universities rescinding honorary degrees, the Television Academy confirmed to USA TODAY Wednesday that Cosby’s status in its Hall of Fame is under review in the wake of his criminal conviction last week. Before the guilty verdict, the Academy removed Cosby, who was inducted in 1992, from a listing of Hall of Fame honorees on its website.

Honorary degrees? Fine, rescind them. They’re meaningless. But it is wrong to take him out of the Hall of Fame. Bill Cosby didn’t get into the TV Hall of Fame for being a nice guy. He got into it because of the quality of his art, and the fact that he was a really big deal in television history. You cannot take that away from him — and shouldn’t try to.

The fact that Bill Cosby was also a sexual predator obviously mars his legacy irreparably, and that terrible fact should be made clear in any exhibit at the Hall of Fame, if such a place actually exists. But if the TV Hall of Fame is going to start kicking people out because they were bad people away from the screen, it’s going to be pretty lonely in there.

Bill Cosby is a bad man. He’s getting his comeuppance, and may die in prison. But bad men can and do make good art, and make history. To not be able to grasp that fact and live with the contradiction is childish and puritanical. It is just to put Bill Cosby in jail for what he did, and to hold him in public contempt. It is not just to deny his artistic accomplishments.

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