Papers Neglect Human Side, Cosby Says

Bill Cosby urged the nation’s newspaper executives Wednesday to publish more stories that show readers the human side of the news.

“Seven children burned to death - no feeling,” Cosby told a Newspaper Association of America meeting. “Man killed, woman raped - these are human beings. … What we have to do is make the person reading feel the pain.”

Cosby gave the executives a glimpse into his own anguish when he was told that his 27-year-old son, Ennis, had been killed on Jan. 16. “The day I got the news, 1,000 hornets attacked this frontal lobe.” Cosby also prodded the newspaper industry to pay more attention to accuracy.Too often newsmakers are evaluated in simplistic terms, he suggested.

“Is the person good? Or is he bad? If he isn’t either, he’s boring,” Cosby said. “How do we get him angry? How do we rip out of his mouth something he didn’t mean to say and then run with it?”