Feedback 7 september 2021
Last update 15:22
Right-wing flaring campaign seems to be successful
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It is surprising how little Khalid Kasem and Sophie Hilbrand are awarded. For weeks before the first broadcast, grumbling was heard. Now you are taking a risk if you step into the big shoes of Matthijs van Nieuwkerk because before you know it you stumble and lie – as my late father would say – on your flat mouth.
The flaring started before both presenters spent a minute in the studio. That really sets it apart.
The demonization came mainly from the far right where it is hard to accept that Fidan Ekiz has been sidelined. She is considered a good Turk in those circles for partly unsearchable reasons. A good Turk is a Turk who also believes that the multicultural society has failed and that the borders should be closed. So get her successors from cotton. The right-wing aggression focused mainly on Khalid Kasem despite the fact that he and Royce de Vries, son of Peter R. De Vries, have a law firm, to which the murdered investigative journalist was also associated. The story was raised that Kasem had passed on information to Ridouan Taghi and his followers. The fact that he had been declared innocent by the Dutch Bar Association remained in the background. Nor did anyone wonder how Kasem could continue to work so closely with the De Vries family when he was spying for her mortal enemy. It didn’t matter: as long as the new presenter could be dragged through the dust. When he invited Royce de Vries to his talk show, the house was again too small. You couldn’t interview your office mate as a journalist, could you? Oh shit! Oh dear!
The critics apparently couldn’t dig up old dirt about Sophie Hilbrand. That’s why a Johan Derksen couldn’t come up with anything better then this: “She exudes a kind of ‘I’ve got it all under control’ arrogance. Nothing came of that tonight.” He gave her a four. For example, it was not the integrity of Sophie Hilbrand that was called into question, but her professional competence. That while she has been working for the public broadcaster since 2004.
If you look at Khalid and Sophie, you will notice that both presenters deftly guide their guests through the program. There is a mix of seriousness and fancy where seriousness usually wins out. The guests are usually veterans at the talk show tables, but that is a shortcoming that the celebrated De Wereld Draait by also suffered from. In its last years, that program could have been better renamed to Always the Same.
However, there is no reason at all to cut Kasem and Hilbrand down as is happening now. An important part of the topics is relevant and current. The guests come out well. The presenters will not win a Nipkov disc with it, but there is no question of bumbling or amateurism. On the contrary. Pleasant, for example, is the calm tone and not the gasping, the generated enthusiasm that so often mars radio and television because some idiots think you attract the younger generations with it.
Tuesday morning suggested Angela de Jong of the AD Johnny de Mol as an example who had to compete with Khalid and Sophie with HLF8 on SBS6. That was just a presenter. That was just a relief. De Mol had a conversation with Henny Huisman, who once accidentally wiped his ass with Glorix wipes. Davina Michelle shared what was going through her mind as she stood face to face with all those drivers on the track and was allowed to sing the national anthem. Nobody kept it dry, according to De Mol. Jeroen van den Boom also sang. That was quality! That was just a talk show! Khalid and Sophie cannot compete with that with items about Afghan refugees and relatives of the MH17 disaster. The viewing figures proved De Jong right. 423,000 for the Mol against 352,000 for the NPO duo.
This is indeed a shit country. Did you hear that Diederik Ebbinge?
For the rest, I am of the opinion that the subsidy scandal should not disappear from public attention, and neither should the Groningen natural gas affair.
Encore: folk songs: look and compare. Also the visual language
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