Khalid Kasem gets a huge blow from Lars Duursma. The debate expert thinks the presenter is a ‘cowardly coward’. “Rarely have I heard such soft and cowardly questions,” he fumes.
Lars Duursma, debate expert and opinion maker, believes that Jeroen Pauw at his regular table at Khalid & Sophie got away far too easily with some criticisms of the election debate he produced on SBS 6. There, for example, a VVD sponsor and a Wilders sympathizer were the questioners. without mentioning it.
Pauw coaches Khalid
There was particular fuss about the lady who sympathizes with Geert Wilders, because she created a defining TV moment in the run-up to the elections. She made it extremely difficult for Frans Timmermans. Did this help Wilders to his election victory? Critics think so and are critical of Jeroen Pauw.
Khalid & Sophie mentioned this to Jeroen, but the talk show duo was noticeably reticent, especially Khalid Kasem. Soon the monkey came out of the sleeve: Jeroen turns out to be Khalid’s coach. This proves once again that you simply have to make these types of double hats transparent to the viewer at home, says Lars.
Cowardly and soft
Lars, who is himself on the progressive side of the political spectrum, believes that these types of relationships should be clear to the viewer. “I thought that was relevant, because I have rarely heard such soft and cowardly questions as those from Khalid about the card punched in the SBS debate, in which a PVV fan was allowed to attack Timmermans.”
He also points to the talk show feud that arose between Wilfred Genee and his former pupil Fidan Ekiz. “This shows how something can go off the rails if the coachee questions the coach critically and how much you apparently have to walk on eggshells when asking questions,” says the opinion maker in the podcast The Communicados.
Anxiety
It is time to make mentioning double hats mandatory, Lars believes. “I think: that makes it extra important that you prevent such situations and otherwise make them transparent to the viewer, so that we at least know why the presenter suddenly becomes such a cowardly coward.”
Co-host Victor Vlam: “I do think that Khalid held back when asking Jeroen Pauw that critical question. I think if there had been another producer there who was not also Khalid’s coach, he would have gone all out on the organ.”
Objectively
It will have been strange to the unsuspecting viewer that Khalid was so reticent on this subject, according to Victor. “It is very logical for BNNVARA to denounce that, because that is a debate that has helped Geert Wilders enormously, according to analysts.”
He concludes: “So I do think that with another producer he would have really gone much harder. And that indicates that it is really very difficult to be able to interview your coach objectively.”