Tij van den Brink: I am paid from public money, so you can also be publicly accountable

What does Tijs van den Brink do when he receives criticism? “You look at who it came from, then I listen, and then I try to see if it makes any sense.” The EO presenter has received plenty of criticism in recent years, especially from people who disagreed with the corona measures and accused ‘the media’ of slavishly adopting the government narrative.

Now that the dust has settled somewhat, Van den Brink wonders whether they had a point. Was he too docile? Did he look critically enough at government policy? Were critics of the corona policy given sufficient space in the media?

In two episodes of This is the Issue Van den Brink, together with director Jos de Jager, talks to his critics. He visits Maurice de Hond, Jort Kelder and Marianne Zwagerman, among others, who made strong statements about government measures from the start of the pandemic, but also a woman who saw her group of friends fall apart because she was seen as ‘wappy’. She personally blames Van den Brink for this, because he is said to have contributed to the polarization.

“It is never nice to receive criticism, but ignoring or pushing these people aside is not interesting to me. I prefer to talk to them and try to understand where their anger comes from. During the corona period I had quite a prominent position, as a presenter Op1 in This is the day, and through my columns and podcasts. That gives you a certain responsibility. Moreover, I am paid from public money, so you also have to be publicly accountable.”

“I distinguish two groups of corona skeptics. There were people who really spread nonsense, denied the virus or deliberately spread lies. That doesn’t bother me. But there was also a group that looked at corona from a different perspective and who were really not crazy, but were declared crazy. I wanted to talk to those people.”

“I visited Ronald Meester, professor of probability theory at the VU, a respected man who knows about models. He, like many others, refused the QR code. Have we taken that group seriously enough? Actually not, I think.”

“And we always employ virologists or other scientists with expertise. Maurice de Hond pointed out very early on the spread via aerosols. You can say anything about the certainty with which he stated that, but he was right. So I still think it was right that we invited him.”

“That’s right, and during the corona period I increasingly got the feeling that he was out to damage institutions. That was also a reason for me not to invite him anymore. Still, I found it interesting to speak to him now and hear how he experienced it.”

(laughing) “I’m a Protestant, self-flagellation is more of a Catholic thing. But the desire to heal is within me. That may sound a bit soft, but I really think it is necessary. Many people have lost each other a bit during the corona period. There are so many people who have turned away from society, who have lost confidence in the government and in the media, groups of friends and families who have become at odds. In any case, let’s try to see if that can still be fixed. And let’s make an effort to learn lessons from this crisis.”

“Absolute. I find it bizarre that there is no parliamentary inquiry due to political wrangling. It was one of the greatest social disruptions since the Second World War. There have been far-reaching interventions in all kinds of fundamental rights, generally with good reasons, in my opinion. But you have to reflect on that afterwards, right? Take that curfew, that was quite something for me. I think we can conclude that it hardly or not at all worked. It seems only logical to me to look back on that.”

“Belgian research recently showed that the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) may still work against corona. There may be some room for criticism about those research results, but I still thought: phew. We met with GP Rob Elens, who prescribed this drug to his patients Op1but did we take him seriously enough?”

“You have to talk to questioners, you shouldn’t push them away or write them off. They are not lepers, they do not have a scary disease or anything, they are fellow citizens. And we will have to move forward together.”

“That seems very good to me, although it is perhaps more something for scientists to investigate how the media did it. But looking critically at yourself and being accountable never hurts, that applies to everyone.”

This is the issue (EO), NPO 2, November 29 and December 6, 10:15 PM