After some insistence, Victor Vlam, Hélène Hendriks’ regular media critic, still speaks out about Jack van Gelder’s boycott. He believes that Talpa is obliged to be open about matters.
The current edition of the Hélène Hendriks talk show De Oranjewinter is unprecedentedly boring: it is an achievement if you as a viewer reach the end tune. According to Johan Derksen, the program is currently so colorless because Jack van Gelder is not present. He is not welcome during the current series, but Hélène does not dare, may or does not want to clarify this.
Victor afraid?
Johan states that not Hélène but Talpa is behind the Jack boycott, but a clear reason remains unclear. According to columnist Jan Dijkgraaf, Jack’s ‘right-wing talk’ clearly plays a role. Hélène’s current regular sidekick, Rutger Castricum, is much safer and much more mainstream. He just laughs along nicely.
So we don’t hear anything from Hélène, but TV critic Victor Vlam also remained remarkably silent. Normally he touches on all media riots in his podcast, but in the last edition the Jack riot remained undiscussed. He is a regular guest of Hélène and this gave rise to the suspicion that he is afraid of punishment if he discusses internal matters.
Credibility
After some insistence, Victor is now speaking out about the issue, namely op X. There, a certain Harald says to him: “Are we going to hear you, the media critic, about the Van Gelder issue? Or are you crawling away to preserve your life, afraid of also losing your snack at De Oranjewinter? Think about your credibility, Victor.”
The media critic then: “Are you crazy, I give my opinion on everything I think about. As far as I’m concerned it’s simple: the more Jack van Gelder in a talk show, the better. He speaks on behalf of a large group of Dutch people and is a television legend.”
‘Give clarity!’
Victor says nothing about why Jack is no longer with the party. It is almost impossible that he has not discussed this with Hélène, but he remains silent about this for the time being.
Victor does say: “I also think that Talpa should give a clear explanation for why they don’t want him, if that is the case. They owe it to him, but also to the fans of the program.”