We Have to Talk: Reporting Is Not the Same Thing As “Platforming”

In the first episode of Buffy’s seventh season, titled “Lessons,” Spike is going mad in the basement of the newly-rebuilt Sunnydale High when he gets a lecture from the season’s still-ruminating Big Bad. To deliver the speech, The First inhabits each of Buffy’s central nemeses from the previous seasons — Warren Mears, Glorificius, Adam — all the way down to the first season’s ur-villain, The Master, before eventually adopting the form of the Slayer herself. “You still don’t get it. It’s not about right. It’s not about wrong,” The First says. “It’s about power.” - YouTube www.youtube.com I’m reminded of these words as I wrestle, once again, with reader feedback about the stories that we choose to cover at Them — and in queer media at large — and which articles we highlight on our social media channels. Often, when covering the many people who wish to do the queer and trans communities harm, my colleagues and I will discuss a recurring strain of feedback we receive, which often uses the same word: platforming. It came up again this weekend when we reported on Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s alleged relationships with staffers (including an alleged hush payment to a female former employee) with a staffer and has come up countless times before. When Them reports on bad behavior such as WNBA star Sophie Cunningham’s courting of the transphobic right or UFC Fighter Josh Hokit shouting a transphobic and racist lie about Michelle Obama on the White House lawn, the same neologism gets thrown around: we’re platforming them. Reporting on anything J.K. Rowling does — no matter how egregious or newsworthy — often earns this label as well.I guess a good place to start would be to agree on a mutual definition of “platforming,” at least for the purposes of talking about this particular phenomenon. Whereas its more popular cousin, “deplatforming,” includes taking away speaking opportunities, such as disinviting people t