The Navy has stripped Navy veteran Bill Cosby of an honorary promotion in the wake of unproven sexual misconduct accusations.
The Hill (“Navy rescinds Cosby’s honorary title“):
The U.S. Navy is revoking Bill Cosby’s honorary title of chief petty officer, the service announced Thursday.
“The Navy is taking this action because allegations against Mr. Cosby are very serious and are in conflict with the Navy’s core values of honor, courage and commitment,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Master Chief Petty Officer Michael Stevens said in a joint statement.
The Navy’s action marks the latest chapter in the public backlash against Cosby that has included NBC canceling his planned sitcom “America’s TV Dad” last month.
Cosby was given the honorary military rank in 2011. He originally enlisted in the service in 1956 and served for four years as a hospital corpsman before being honorably discharged in 1960 as a 3rd class petty officer, according to the statement.
The famed comedian has come under fire in recent weeks as past allegations by several women that he drugged and raped them have resurfaced.Several more women have come forward accusing the 77-year-old TV legend of sexual misconduct. Cosby has repeatedly denied the allegations, none of which have gone to court.
The conduct of which Cosby is accused is reprehensible and the sheer volume of accusations makes it extremely likely that he’s a serial abuser. Given that the military in general and the Navy in particular is trying to deal with its own problems with sexual misconduct, distancing themselves from Cosby here is understandable.
Still, in the absence of judicial determination of misconduct, the action here strikes me as, well, petty. Cosby honorably served in the Navy, after all, and achieved the lowest petty officer (NCO) rank. Being an honorary chief petty officer (E-7) is, shall we say, hardly atop the list of Cosby’s honors. It’s not as if the Navy is tarred by the association; few know it exists.
Beyond that, the Navy’s action is almost ironic in the context of this:
Cosby has also been bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, though a former White House aid predicted President Obama would not revoke that honor.
The aide in question is Aram Bakshian, who was “responsible for the in-house selection process for Medal of Freedom recipients while working for the Reagan administration” and notes that there’s “no precedent” for revoking the nation’s highest civilian honor once bestowed. Cosby was bestowed under President George W. Bush in 2002.
Alas, Cosby—a beloved man who entertained millions for decades and is a legitimate civil rights hero—is yet another object lesson in the fact that we really don’t know celebrities. His fall from grace is a true shame. That he apparently got away with horrific conduct for so long is a tragedy.
