Ford’s description of media tactics against her appalls journalists

Christine Blasey Ford said Thursday that she was compelled to speak out about her sexual misconduct accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after her name was leaked to the media and reporters showed up at her home and classroom.

{mosads}Ford, who serves as a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and as a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she mistook a journalist for a student in her class, describing tactics that drew condemnation from journalists online.

“Ultimately [I came forward] because reporters were sitting outside my home and trying to talk to my dog through the window,” Ford said. “And a reporter appeared in my graduate classroom and I mistook her for a student.”

Blasey Ford describes how she decided to go public with the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh pic.twitter.com/HbWdpH1s3M

— Axios (@axios) September 27, 2018

“At that point I felt like enough was enough,” she added. “People were calling my colleagues at Stanford.” 

Members of the media reacted with disbelief and anger to the descriptions, denouncing the tactics as “really unethical” and “truly disturbing.”

Wait, what reporter pretended to be a student to talk to a survivor of sexual assault?! #Kavanaugh #KavanaughHearings

— Anne Mostue (@AnneMostue) September 27, 2018

Reporters tracking down Christine Blasey Ford at work and home were doing their job in an ordinary way, and yet when it comes to a sexual assault survivor, it’s hard not to question whether ordinary is acceptable.

— Irin Carmon (@irin) September 27, 2018

It makes me angry to hear Dr. Ford testify about the reporters who failed to handle her with care and respect. And it makes me immensely proud to call @emmersbrown, who in Dr. Ford’s words “gained my trust,” my colleague.

— Katie Mettler (@kemettler) September 27, 2018

Dr. Ford describing reporters harassing her knowing she is an alleged sex assault victim is truly disturbing to me as a member of the media. #KavanaughHearing

— Arnessa Garrett (@agarre) September 27, 2018

One thing that I am hearing from Dr. Ford that is so very disturbing is how people camped out at her home. Reporters, please, for God’s sake, do not do this. Regardless of who you are, do not do this. Ever.

— Terrell J. Starr (@Russian_Starr) September 27, 2018

Some of the reporters Ford is describing are engaging in really unethical behavior—just want to say that many of us who cover sexual-assault would never, ever behave like that.

— Olivia Messer (@OliviaMesser) September 27, 2018

there is a much larger conversation to be had about how the collective media interacts with traumatized people and how those interactions often do additional harm

— Wesley (@WesleyLowery) September 27, 2018