What responsibility do platform builders have for the subsequent success — and notoriety — of the people they enable? What is the right approach to addressing issues that come up after the relationship has already been established?
Platforms Confer Credibility
In today’s world of celebrity pastors and politicians, as well as the competitive publishing world, personal brand is key to establishing authority in a domain. In fact, one’s ability to build a following has a greater influence than credentials or experience.
Michael Hyatt’s book Platform, released when the vehicles for establishing an online presence were still in early adoption, noted that publishers don’t have time to make anyone famous. In order for a book to win a substantial contract, they already need to have an audience.
The same holds true at voting polls. Voters are more likely to cast a ballot for a person with a name they recognize than someone they don’t, even if the other candidate is more qualified. Behavioral economists call this the recognition heuristic, the tendency for people to perceive more favorably the people and things with which they are most familiar. It’s a more efficient way for us to make decisions quickly in a complicated world. People with a knack for building a platform and achieving celebrity status can easily exploit this dynamic.
Recognition heuristic: the tendency for people to perceive more favorably the people and things with which they are most familiar
Did a High Integrity Pastor Unwittingly “Platform” a Toxic One?
Mark Driscoll was an early adopter of blogs and podcast publishing platforms. He started a church in his early twenties, without seminary or prior ministry experience. By force of personality and straight-talk, he rapidly built a following in Seattle that exploded on the internet. The momentum propelled his church into hypergrowth, despite the church’s location in a less religious city.
Driscoll aligned himself with a conservative theological bent espoused by renowned church leaders like Tim Keller of Redeemer Church in New York City. Long before concerns about Marks character emerged, he, Keller, and several others formed The Gospel Coalition, an association to hold gatherings and publish messages online.
Mark Driscoll’s association with Tim Keller gave him credibility and masked his toxic leadership style.
This gave Driscoll additional authority through brand association — the same tactic marketer use when they have a celebrity or influencer appear with a product. Unfortunately, it also led to Keller being accused of platforming Driscoll.
As he explained to the host of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, the podcast about Driscoll’s church, Keller came from a faith tradition with a strong system of preparation and accountability. Unlike Driscoll, Kelly prepared extensively for ministry. And when he has made statements that could be interpreted as unorthodox, his denomination conducted extensive reviews to ensure his teachings were still solid.
In the interview, Keller noted that, in fact, Driscoll was the one that platformed him and his peers, since he was so far ahead of them on establishing an online presence. But he did express regret that the association didn’t have a mechanism for reviewing the membership of people whose integrity came into question.
Driscoll was later forced out of his church for an abusive leadership style. For years, he had refused to submit to the leadership of more experienced pastors. But his association with them helped him grow to fame. Perhaps an intervention by more seasoned leaders would have prevented the fallout from the demise of Driscoll’s ministry.
Did The Apprentice’s Producer Create a Misleading Image of the Future President?
Mark Burnett, the producer of The Apprentice, came under attack for his role in platforming Donald Trump. Jimmy Kimmel called him out at the 2016 Emmy award ceremony and joked that he would be to blame if Trump became president.
As Patrick Radden Keefe recounted in his book Rogues, The Apprentice production team distilled countless hours of footage into TV-sized episodes. That meant keeping the clips that magnified the powerful image of the lead character, editing dialog to be crisp and direct, and creating eye-catching camera angles and ceremonies.
Many of the iconic moves from the show were replicated in the presidential campaign to make the persona reality. This leaves the former president’s detractors to wonder if he would have become president at all without the show. They questioned whether the competence of his TV character reflected his actual capabilities or whether it was an illusion. It was as if the man who indirectly platformed him for his presidential candidacy created an image that was not reality and voters fell for it.
TV producers create compelling characters and images
The responsibility of the producer of a television show is to captivate the audience with compelling characters, whether the show is for reality television or not. In that, Mark Burnett has a track record of doing his job well. To Hollywood investors, this means his shows are a great bet.
Would King David Have Consolidated Power Sooner Without His Rival’s Propped Up Platform?
Long before reality television and celebrity pastors, Abner gave life to Ishbosheth’s rule over part of Israel, after King Saul died. Abner proclaimed him as king and continued to lead Saul’s army to fight on his behalf even though he was not a worthy ruler. He didn’t have David’s character, experience or leadership capability.
Eventually, Abner grew disillusioned with Ishbosheth when he accused him of trying to have an affair with the concubines of the late king in a symbolic power grab. Abner was outraged and defected to David, only to be slain by the leader of David’s army, Joab, who had never forgiven him for killing his brother. Shortly thereafter, two of Ishbosheth’s own army captains killed him on his couch while he slept.
Ishbosheth couldn’t lead without Abner holding him up.
In a way, Abner was responsible for platforming Ishbosheth. He propped up the man’s government despite the prophet Samuel declaring that David would be Saul’s successor. This led to years of unnecessary war between the house of David and the house of Saul.
A Better Approach
Both Tim Keller and Mark Burnett benefitted from their association with people who later turned out to be problematic. At what point do we need to speak up in spite of the risks?
Christianity Today took the opportunity to walk back their support of evangelist Ravi Zacharias, when allegations of abuse became too loud to ignore. When accusations first came up, they published the full statement his ministry made denying the charges. However, as the new leader of the organization later admitted, this gave him a platform to state his, while his accuser was bound by a non-disclosure agreement. That created an imbalance of power that goes against Scripture’s mandate to give voice to the voiceless. When Zacharias died, the magazine wrote an obituary that did not shy away from mentioning the accusations.
What would have happened if Tim Keller had intervened by speaking with Driscoll directly as concerned about his bullying leadership style came up? If Driscoll didn’t listen, what if Keller had rallied other leaders to disassociate from The Gospel Coalition and chartered an association that built accountability and leadership integrity into its core values?
What if Burnett had given viewers a behind the scenes view of how reality shows are made? This way, they could have had greater discernment of what is a television personality image and what is reality.
When we say nothing, the implication is that we are in tacit agreement with the other party and endorse them. Therefore, it’s imperative to find a way to differentiate from people who affiliate with us. Otherwise, our own brand could be brought down and we could work against the causes we espouse.
We also need to recognize our own cognitive bias in assessing the competency of others. The fact that they are associated with a certain school, employer, association, or mentor, is simply a data point. When the stakes are high, we need to do our own research and find more data points before drawing a conclusion.
