Angela de Jong is called ‘the populist among TV critics’, according to the NRC Handelsblad, but she herself says that it is not that bad. “I don’t vote FvD and I don’t vote PVV.”
Many prominent opinion makers on television have a left-wing signature, but that is very different with Angela de Jong. The NRC Handelsblad writes about it almost with horror: “On television she stands up for people who have trouble saying goodbye to Zwarte Piet, for villages that resist the arrival of an asylum seekers’ center.”
Woman with supporters
The NRC finds it all a bit suspicious. “Sometimes she sounds like a front woman with a following.”
How about that? Angela understands where that feeling comes from, she tells the newspaper. She herself thinks that it started with Brexit and the rise of Trump. Then she had a lot of criticism of the media and their blinders. “Panic in Hilversum, it had to be different, they also had to reach the common man.”
Populist Angela
It has given Angela a certain image, NRC knows. “It gave her opinions a political edge, she’s been called the populist among TV critics.”
Angela herself thinks that is not so bad, although she admits that she thinks a bit more to the right than the average journalist. She votes VVD. “But absolutely no FVD and no PVV. And I also regularly get to my head that I am a leftist h**r. So is it really that big of a deal? I always just call it: common sense.”
Black Pete
Angela is then equally well tested by the NRC. “In 2017, Zwarte Piet was still black for you. How is that now?”
She replies: “Well, I’ve grown with it. I have seen from my children that they don’t give a damn whether or not they recognize Filemon Wesselink in a soot wipe.”
NRC interview
The NRC interview with Angela:
