King football is above the law. And the clubs are in the pocket of the hooligans. That is why the endemic violence surrounding the matches is never really tackled. On Monday, the talk shows and news sections discussed the inferno with which the F-side torpedoed an Ajax match on Sunday.
The defense was remarkable. The F-side also brought a lot of atmosphere to the matches, young Ajax players thought News hour (NPO 2). A neatly dressed gentleman representing the supporters of the Netherlands argued in favor of tolerating fireworks in stadiums. He had really enjoyed the fireworks at Ajax. In one photo you saw two masked supporters dressed in black hoodies shooting some kind of fireworks bazookas aimed at the field. Enjoy! I thought I recognized them from the battle on the Malieveld, but that may be because I think I see fascists everywhere these days.
News hour asked the rhetorical question: “Who is in charge of the football stadiums?” Paul Depla of the Football and Safety Steering Group said: “It takes a lot of courage to come forward against the violence.” Journalist Sam van Raalte spoke Eva (NPO 1) of an “unhealthy mafia relationship”. Well spotted, I thought. But it turned out he was talking about Argentinian football, where according to him it is much worse. “You don’t have that here.” No? NOS editor-in-chief Giselle van Cann said that she hardly got any people in front of the camera to talk about the football violence. Those involved were “afraid of reprisals” from the F-side. That really sounds like organized crime.
Starving baby in Gaza
Giselle van Cann was present Eva to respond to Minister Mona Keijzer’s attack on NOS News. According to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands, the NOS is a conduit for Hamas propaganda. Van Cann felt that the accusations made by such a high-ranking director undermined confidence in the NOS. Political commentator Joost Vullings called it “a direct attack from the cabinet on journalism.”
The editor-in-chief did not mention it, but unfounded accusations like Keijzer’s also seem to influence the reporting itself – for example, the absurdly cautious way in which the eight o’clock news reports on the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The news seems so afraid of being accused of bias that it prefers to treat Gaza as some kind of natural disaster. He said, she said and our work is done.
Media logic (NPO 2) had the courage to highlight the influence of the Israeli propaganda machine on the Netherlands on Sunday. The case was the photo of the toddler Mohamed Zakariya Ayyoud al-Matouq in his mother’s arms; victim of the famine in Gaza. According to Fabio Cristiano, assistant professor of Conflict Studies, the worldwide publication of the photo in late July marked a turning point in the perception of Gaza.
The Israeli government immediately hit back. It was a fake photo. The toddler suffered from cerebral palsy, which is why he was so skinny. “Not representative” of the situation in Gaza, said CIDI director Naomi Mestrum Media logic. Nonsense of course. Yes, there was “underlying suffering” but Mohamed became life-threateningly thin from not getting any food. And that there was famine in Gaza because Israel kept the borders closed was agreed by many organizations.
But the Israeli stunt caught on. The photo was declared controversial. News platform NU.nl quickly removed it from the site. In The Telegraph columnist Leon de Winter accused the NOS and other news media of spreading “anti-Semitic” propaganda with which they would provoke “pogroms”. Then Mona Keijzer went over it again. As NOS, just keep your back straight.
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