Bill Cosby speaks during a Veterans Day ceremony this          year in Philadelphia. Matt          Rourke/AP hide caption        
          Bill Cosby speaks during a Veterans Day ceremony this          year in Philadelphia.        
    This may be the first time in a long while that Bill Cosby    can't control the public conversation about Bill Cosby.  
    Read the recent biography Cosby: His Life and Times,    and you see a portrait of a talented performer who took control    of his business and career interests early on, forever    suspicious of journalists and industry executives who might try    to interfere.  
    But in the recent explosion of attention to allegations that    the comedy superstar drugged and sexually assaulted several    women years ago, in incidents reaching back to the late 1960s,    Cosby has remained uncharacteristically silent  epitomized by        his interview with NPR's Scott Simon, who found the comic    would only shake his head and utter no sound when asked about    the allegations.  
    His attorney did provide a statement posted on Cosby's website    that said, in part, "decade-old, discredited allegations    against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced. The fact that they are being    repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby doesn't not intend    to dignify these allegations with any comment."  
    Later, a joint statement from Cosby's attorney and a lawyer for    Andrea Constand, a woman who settled a lawsuit with Cosby over    such allegations in 2006, was posted on the site    that read, in part: "The statement released by Mr. Cosby's    attorney over the weekend was not intended to refer in any way    to Andrea Constand. As previously reported, differences between    Mr. Cosby and Ms. Constand were resolved to the mutual    satisfaction of Mr. Cosby and Ms. Constand years ago."  
    News of Cosby's silence rocketed across media; the moment was    covered everywhere from NBC's Today show to CNN,    USA Today and The Washington Post, which    called it "perhaps the most significant dead air in the history    of National Public Radio."  
    When NPR most recently spoke to Cosby, four women had come    forward publicly with rape allegations: Constand, Beth Ferrier,    Tamara Green and     Barbara Bowman. (See    this story for a more detailed account of their    allegations.) Over the weekend, another woman, 66-year-old    publicist Joan Tarshis,     also told media outlets she was drugged and raped by Cosby    when she was 19 years old. Constand filed a lawsuit in 2005    that included 13 women willing to tell similar stories, Greene    and Bowman among them; the suit was settled, no terms were    disclosed and Cosby was never charged with a crime.  
    But several recent events, including the 30th anniversary of    The Cosby Show and the publication of the biography,    have pushed media to reconsider Cosby's legacy.  
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Bill Cosby's Silence On Rape Allegations Makes Huge Media Noise