Gerard Spong remains silent about the rumor that he is Khalid Kasem’s lawyer. Did he use Humberto Tan very hard to clean up his client’s alley?
The journalist Humberto Tan is incredibly a joker: Gerard Spong used his program to clear Khalid Kasem’s alley, but now most likely turns out to be his lawyer. Communications expert Lars Duursma says he has several sources who confirm that Spong is the counselor of the fallen TV star.
Spong is silent
It is of course embarrassing if this is true, because it means that Humberto’s editors have not done their homework properly. After all, the program had invited Spong as an independent expert and the editors should therefore have ensured that he had no direct interest in the case surrounding Khalid.
Wilfred Genee thinks that Humberto’s editors have not done a good job. “It looks like Spong is his lawyer. He recently defended him strongly at Humberto. We called him and he does not want to deny or confirm it,” said the presenter in his talk show Today Inside.
No commercials
Criminal lawyer Job Knoester believes that Spong should not conceal this. “If that is the case, then of course he should have reported it. Spong says it’s about the message and not the person behind it, but that’s of course not true. If, as a lawyer, you are there defending someone and it is your client, I think the public wants to know that.”
Khalid himself is not an advertisement for the legal profession, says Job. “And I also hope that Spong is not his lawyer, because if Spong is his lawyer, then that is not an advertisement of the profession.”
No brainer
Humberto viewers should of course know if Spong is sitting at the table wearing a double hat. “Yes, all the talk show editors we have presented this to, who confirm that it is really a no-brainer that this should be known to the viewer,” says Lars Duursma in his podcast The Communicados.
Let this be a lesson, he continues. “In any case, I think it would be a good idea to ask lawyers as standard whether they are involved in assisting one or more people who are central to the conversation. If they do not want to or are not allowed to answer that question, fine, that is their right, but then I would invite someone else as a talk show.”