Hélène Hendriks is not completely honest about John de Mol’s direct involvement, TV expert Victor Vlam suspects. “As a channel owner, he is really concerned with the guest list.”
Critics say the conservative-populist sound of Today Inside could have been a little louder in its winter replacement with Hélène Hendriks. They were shocked that she suddenly had people like Alexander Pechtold sitting at the table. TV critic Victor Vlam then shouted that channel owner John de Mol had probably demanded more left-wing guests.
Left or right
Hélène firmly denies this, but Victor stands his ground. “She made a big deal out of saying that the program was not allowed to invite more left-wing guests from John de Mol, that John de Mol was not allowed to do that. She said that several times. I said on Twitter that that was the case,” the media expert responds.
He continues in the podcast The Communicados: “Well, let me say the following about that: it seems completely logical to me that John de Mol does indeed interfere with the course of a certain program. Whether a program has a right-wing or a left-wing or a broad signature is of course something that really concerns him as a broadcaster.”
In all the details
Victor knows from experience how John works. “My experience at Talpa… As an American expert, I have of course attended many Talpa programs, various Talpa programs. And I also know that John is involved in really all the details, including things like that.”
He continues: “In fact, for a program I had never been to, an editor I didn’t know suddenly called me and said: yes, John gave me your name. So he is literally busy with the guests.”
‘Very plausible’
John may not be on top of the guest list every night, but he does set the general course, Victor said. “Maybe he has not nominated certain guests at De Oranjewinter, but the fact that he is working on the profile of the guests… Guys, that is really very plausible.”
He concludes: “It really seems to me that that happened.”