It’s Not Up To Journalists To Decide If Woody Allen Is Less Guilty Than Cosby

bill-cosby-woody-allenNew York Magazine’s Vulture ran a story yesterday about Woody Allen‘s new TV show for Amazon. The article outlines all the ways in which Allen’s work is “pretty much perfect” for television. The article then mentions those pesky molestation accusations, and makes sure we know that they are nothing like Bill Cosby‘s alleged crimes.

Here is the very weird postscript, from Vulture:

And a final note: Woody Allen might have raped his adopted stepdaughter when she was 7 years old. Or he might not have. This is a very troubling allegation that will likely haunt Allen for the remainder of his days. It’s also one that we’re not going to get to the bottom of here. (It’s also different from the allegations against Bill Cosby, whose accusations come from many, many different people and span decades. Those accusations led to Cosby having his TV projects yanked and canceled, which was probably appropriate.) To get into how this may affect whether Allen’s Amazon Prime show will be successful or not would be crass and insensitive ”” to both parties, actually. But it is a matter obviously worthy of noting.

“It’s also different from the allegations against Bill Cosby, whose accusations come from many, many different people and span decades.” So are magazines in the business of deciding which sexual allegations are worse now: drugging and raping dozens of women or molesting your own daughter? Every time the allegations are brought up, and Allen’s right to his career is defended, his victim is maligned. If you want to write about Allen, write about Allen. But don’t write about Allen, then add a postscript describing why you are not morally bankrupt for doing so.

“This is a very troubling allegation that will likely haunt Allen for the remainder of his days,” is a very different commentary than “those accusations led to Cosby having his TV projects yanked and canceled, which was probably appropriate.” We are talking about two alleged rapists. Is there really a “better” person here? One more worthy of praise and support?

Working in a new medium might actually spur him to shake things up a bit ”” to think about new ways to structure and tell his stories, maybe utilizing the long-format possibilities of a series. And who knows? Maybe he’ll create something great. Or maybe it’ll be a disaster. But face it ”” you’re at least a little curious to see what he comes up with.

Nope. I’m actually not. Glad to hear that you may possibly believe the dozens of women who have come forward against Cosby, but putting that up against the accusations of a then 7-year-old and basically labeling those accusations “less believable” is not your job. And it’s gross.

(photo: Getty)

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