Angela de Jong had better go to her boss as soon as possible to reverse her career change, says columnist Jan Dijkgraaf, also the biographer of the Meilandjes. “She’s an asshole.”
Despite the arrival of media critics such as Tina Nijkamp and Victor Vlam, 49-year-old Angela de Jong struck gold with her influential TV column. It made her relevant, but she has now killed that relevance herself. Nowadays she writes ‘general’ columns, but they are sometimes cringingly without content.
0.0 beer
Nowadays we have to read how Angela’s husband had stocked up on beer for a party, but that people preferred the 0.0 variant and that they did not have it in stock. Or that she was making children’s surprises from licorice laces, but those licorice laces had dried out the next morning. Two words: who cares?
Jan Dijkgraaf, the biographer of the Meilandjes, finds it really embarrassing. The day before yesterday he saw how Angela had driven from Rotterdam to Amsterdam for more than two minutes (!) of airtime to rehash that story about that 0.0 beer to Renze Klamer, recently her colleague at DPG Media.
Tettering
Angela should reverse her decision, Jan advises in his column Letter from Jan. “You know that during your time as a feared ‘television columnist’ for the Algemeen Dagblad, I was always a big fan of your work. (…) You decided that you wanted to become a ‘general columnist’ and as a loyal reader I feel that this has caused you a struggle.”
He continues: “You still want to work with a pen like a fillet knife, but you actually only know one thing: television. That’s why ‘general columnist’ is too broad for you, Angela.”
A thousand times
According to him, Angela’s new work is just downright bad. “I read all the ‘columns’ you wrote since you became a ‘general columnist’. Not only has it been done a thousand times, it’s also been done a thousand times better. You’re too good for bullshit and nowadays you’re made to look like a fool when you join talk shows.”
He concludes: “That’s why I have some advice for you. Go to your editor-in-chief today and ask Rennie if you can please, please, just become a television columnist again from tomorrow. I don’t think you have to get on your knees. I think the editor-in-chief will immediately order cake for the entire editorial team.”