Angela de Jong will not have to deal with a Telegraaf equivalent for the time being. Although that newspaper also has a media columnist, Kitty Herweijer, she does not want to participate in talk shows.
It sometimes seems as if the written press only has one person with an opinion on television: Angela de Jong. You hear very little from the other newspapers. For a while, De Telegraaf had one, Rob Goossens, but he was more or less dismissed because of his courtship with RTL Boulevard.
Mind machine
Does Kitty Herweijer, Rob’s successor, not feel like representing the media department of De Telegraaf on television? No, she answers firmly in the podcast Content Wars. “I just don’t feel the need to sit down at talk show tables and discuss my columns. I do not have that.”
Kitty says she doesn’t have the need that Angela feels. “My base is a journalist and I just don’t want to be an opinion maker or anything. You see so many people on TV that you think: an opinion machine. I find that really boring.”
Conflict of Interest
With TV appearances you also rub against conflicts of interest, Kitty thinks. “I’m a bit hesitant to join talk shows anyway, because I write about it. As a media reporter you notice that you have to relate to that world, but you also shouldn’t let yourself be swallowed up by it.”
She continues: “It’s just much more difficult to write critically about people you often work with or otherwise come into contact with. I have decided for myself that I will not join talk shows, in general.”
Too often on talk show
Podcast host Jelle Maasbach: “Yes, that is the criticism that Angela de Jong also receives, for example, isn’t it? That she too often joins a talk show table when she has to write about it.”
Kitty: “Yes, it’s a bit of a separate role in that respect that she has. She is part of the media game. You become that anyway when you write about the media (…), but yes, look: she says that it does not bother her and writes what she wants and I believe that with her, but I still think it is easier to write a keep your distance.”
Present with Eus
During the Boekenweek Kitty could be seen as co-host of Özcan Akyol in Eus’ Boekenclub. That’s different, she thinks. “It’s a really good experience, because of course you write about programs and of course I’ve been on sets and stuff, but it’s very different when you’re part of it.”
“I always think it’s good as a media reporter to understand that. You can sometimes have quite harsh criticism, but I think that the love for TV should be the basis.”