How the Public and Private Contrast Brought Down Bill Cosby

For decades, Bill Cosby cast himself as America's dad and then as America's granddad, a moralist with tough talk for young people about acting responsibly. It was that image that proved to be his undoing. The judge who unsealed documents on Monday revealing Cosby's 2005 admission that he obtained quaaludes to give to young women before sex cited the comedian's public moralizing in deciding to release the testimony. The testimony, from a decade-old lawsuit, has called into question Cosby's denials that he drugged and sexually assaulted women. Cosby had fought the request from The Associated Press to unseal the material, but U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno in Philadelphia ruled: "The stark contrast between Bill Cosby, the public moralist, and Bill Cosby, the subject of serious allegations concerning improper (and perhaps criminal) conduct, is a matter to which the AP — and by extension the public — has a significant interest."