Bias Bash: Press need to vet claims against Cosby
Ellen Ratner on the how media have covered the story
A woman who has accused Bill Cosby of raping her in the 1970s has filed a defamation lawsuit in Massachusetts against the comedian, alleging he "publicly branded" her a liar when his lawyer called her claims "absolutely false."
Tamara Green says in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Springfield on Wednesday that Cosby drugged and raped her when she was an aspiring model. Green first spoke publicly about the alleged rape in 2005.
Green says after she did media interviews earlier this year, Cosby's lawyer and publicist both made statements intended to expose her to public contempt and ridicule.
The attorney, Walter M. Phillips Jr., couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Messages left for the publicist, David Brokaw, weren't immediately returned.
Cosby, who has a home in Shelburne Falls in western Massachusetts, is the lawsuit's only defendant.
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