The media is trying to prop up her credibility by referring to her the way they refer to no one else.
I had always assumed that outside of academia, e.g., in the media, only medical doctors were supposed to be referred to as “Doctor,” and academics with a Ph.D. were referred to as “Professor” or Mr./Mrs./Ms. For example, both George Will and Newt Gingrich have Ph.D. degrees, but nobody ever calls them Dr. Will or Dr. Gingrich. Fed chairs Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen all have Ph.D.s but weren’t usually referred to in the media with their “doctor” title. In fact a Google News search of “Janet Yellen” reveals 185,000 results vs. only 821 for “Dr. Yellen.” Similarly, a Google search for Ben Bernanke results in 129,000 references vs. only 704 for “Dr. Bernanke,” and there are 128,000 results for “Alan Greenspan” compared to only 271 for “Dr. Greenspan.”
Q: Why is it that Professor Ford is almost exclusively referred to in the media as “Dr. Ford” while news reports on Professor Wansink almost exclusively refer to him as “Brian Wansink” or “Mr. Wansink”? Even the Wall Street Journal, which never identified Brian Wansink as “Dr. Wansink,” refers repeatedly to “Dr. Ford” in articles here, here, and here. As somebody with a Ph.D. I’m happy to be vainly referred to as “Dr. Perry” as frequently as possible, but I certainly don’t ever expect it, especially outside of higher education. So I’m a little surprised by the ubiquitous use of the term “Dr. Ford” lately in the media. If the media doesn’t refer to Chairs of the Federal Reserve with their academic titles “Dr.”, what’s up with “Dr. Ford”?? Isn’t the media obsession with the term “Dr. Ford” a significant departure from past practices, or am I wrong about this?
Here’s a quick Google Search of “Dr. Ford”.