Update: The RateMyProfessor smear is even stupider than first reported. It seems the sleuths over at Grabien News reported the ratings of Christine A. Ford, who teaches in the Social Work Department at California State University, Fullerton, not the ratings of Christine B. Ford, who accused Kavanaugh and who teaches at Palo Alto University.
It is perhaps somewhat relevant that Christine Blasey Ford is a registered Democrat, a donor to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and a liberal political activist. It is not at all relevant, however, that the woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of attempted sexual assault got poor performance reviews from a couple of her students.
Before coming forward with the allegations, Blasey scrubbed most of her social media profile. This is understandable considering what happened next. Less than 24 hours after revealing her name, the conservative website Grabien News thought it newsworthy to publish screenshots of student reviews on RateMyProfessor.com.
For those unfamiliar, the website is exactly what it sounds like. Undergraduates, many of them no doubt unhappy with their grade and all of them anonymous, rate their professors. It is like Yelp, except for educators and its ratings are not exactly what pollsters would call a “scientific sample.” The forums are lightly moderated and the content isn’t always serious. For a while, there was even a “hotness” quotient so students could rate their professor on their looks.
Somehow, the sleuths over at Grabien News and the Drudge Report, who later linked to the story, thought the public needed to know that Ford scored a 2.3 out of 5 from 2010-2014 while teaching in the Social Work Department at California State University, Fullerton.
The allegations brought forward by Ford are serious and should be considered seriously. Anonymous online rants do nothing to prove or disprove her story. This RateMyProfessor.com story is a smear and a particularly stupid one at that.
