As an employee of John de Mol, Show News host Manuel Venderbos can hardly believe it: is Bridget Maasland at competitor RTL just critical of her own boss?!
Bridget Maasland is strikingly critical of her own boss Peter van der Vorst. She states that he has damaged the image of RTL by his clumsy bumbling with Matthijs van Nieuwkerk and indirectly calls him indecent. Such a thing is of course completely unthinkable at John de Mol’s Talpa: his employee Manuel Venderbos is shocked.
Bridget critical
Manuel, presenter of Shownieuws, points out her fierce criticism in the AD Media podcast. “What I find striking is that the stars of RTL Boulevard Peter van der Vorst are now also openly saying: ‘Why did you make this choice? Bridget, yes.”
The big star of the podcast, Angela de Jong, then: “Well, Bridget also said it at the time, when Matthijs was brought in, that she had thought it was decent that they had waited until the report was available. Yes, I think that is very logical, because that is also my opinion.”
‘You can’t say anything’
Media journalist Dennis Jansen wonders why Manuel is raising this. “What do you find striking about that?”
Manuel: “Well, you can’t say anything.”
Like they do at Shownieuws on topics about the boss, so to speak. Angela: “Yes, that is cowardly if you take everything and everyone into account.”
Manuel: “Yes, but measuring up to your own boss is more difficult.”
Waited three times
Angela: “Yes, but yes, if you have a lot of criticism about…”
Manuel: “I think you also waited three times before writing something about Eus and that’s not even your boss.”
Angela: “Well, not three times, but these are things where you take into account that it is indeed a colleague here. But then it’s very simple: if it had been someone else, I would have written about it too.”
Nice person
The fact that Özcan is a colleague does not stop Angela. “Then you think for a moment: shit, you know, he also writes for this newspaper, is a valued colleague, I think he’s a nice person. So how do you do that? Contrary to my habit, I sent him a text message stating that he was the subject of my column, but that’s it.”
She continues: “I’m not saying it’s easy either. But I do think that if you are very critical at the moment, such as RTL Boulevard about John de Mol knowingly keeping Peter Gillis on the screen, then at a certain point it is a logical progression.”
Credibility
RTL Boulevard must also act very independently to regain credibility, according to Angela. “The column has of course lost its credibility in recent years, as they did not say a word about Humberto’s affair. Yes, they will have learned from this, I hope.”
She concludes: “And if you are paid to give your opinion, then you are also paid to give your opinion about people when it is not very convenient for them and they are in your own environment.”