Reporting Injustice Episode 1: How Bill Cosby's accusers got to tell their story

This October 16th marks the sixth anniversary of comedian Hannibal Buress’ off the cuff comment about America’s TV dad, Bill Cosby. The comment went viral and put into motion the coming forward of 60 women to tell their stories, international media attention, lawsuits, changes in the statute of limitations in California, a sexual assault charge, a mistrial, a guilty verdict, and ultimately a three to ten-year prison sentence.

After years of whistleblowers trying to be heard, Cosby was finally being held to account. Why was that? The reason was a sea-change in the way sexual assault was covered, thanks to the decision of The New York Magazine to focus on the accusers rather than the celebrity at the centre.

In today’s episode, we explore the unravelling of the Bill Cosby case. We talk to the journalist behind The New York Magazine expose that featured 35 of the women’s stories - Noreen Malone. We also talk to experts on how the story was treated in the press and how this case was the precursor to the #Metoo movement.

Noreen Malone is the host of an upcoming season of Slow Burn. Before that, she was the editorial director of New York Magazine. Her reporting has won the George Polk Award and a Front Page Award. She lives in Brooklyn.

This is the first episode of The Knowhow Podcast's special five-part series: Reporting Injustice... A series where we look at some of the key stories in recent years that were turning points in how we saw some fundamental issues. We talk to the journalists who uncovered them about their struggle to bring these stories to public view. And we speak to experts who explain how these reports altered the way society perceived pressing matters of race, class and sexism. From Bill Cosby to Windrush, Grenfell to missing and murdered indigenous women, Reporting Injustice looks at the story behind the stories...

Presented by: Dr. Glenda Cooper and Dr. Lindsey Blumell

Produced by: Atina Dimitrova

Tune in. Let us know what you think.

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