Jan Smit gets a slap on the fingers from Angela de Jong. The AD opinion diva believes that he has behaved very clumsily towards Aran Bade. “How long have you been in the media?!”
He is really becoming a bit of a strange guy: Jan Smit. Nowadays the singer acts very irritated when the media asks him ordinary questions. He has resigned as commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest – it seems he has left with dissatisfaction – but when he is asked critical questions about it he acts really, really pissed off. Weirdly pissed off even.
Bickering
Jan was completely out of sorts with reporter Aran Bade from RTL Boulevard, but to spare the singer, the show section initially chose not to broadcast the images. Because the news gave rise to this this week, the show section did so. We see a nasty Jan who plays it very seriously.
Angela de Jong thinks it’s really that clumsy. The opinion dragon says in the AD Media podcast: “I always get very suspicious when I see how they will react. And that whole bickering with Aran Bade. Then I think: how long have you been in the media, Jan? You know how to play this too, right?”
Unprofessional
According to Angela, Jan’s media attitude is really very unprofessional. “If you don’t want stories to come out, then you have to do it differently. Yeah, I mean, there’s clearly something there.”
Colleague Marcus den Blanken agrees. “Yes, no, and let’s be clear… Jan Smit doesn’t always handle things well. Things did not go well in Volendam. We have seen that. And also how he got out of there. He could use a communications advisor.”
Three hours
Cornald Maas has given a rather cold response to Jan’s departure as a fellow commentator. Angela: “For the seasoned showbiz reporters who specialize in reading between the lines, I think everyone gives quite a lot of hints.”
There is certainly more going on, also thinks podcast host Manuel Venderbos. He points to the official reason why Jan is quitting as a Eurovision commentator: a weekly radio show on some niche channel of the NPO. “It is of course quite crazy, because that is only three hours a year of commenting.”
Nice and grateful
Television ratings authority Tina Nijkamp was also annoyed by Jan’s fierce statements against Boulevard-Aran. “Maybe the Eurovision Song Contest is your whole life for you, but not for me,” he sneered, for example.
She signs up The Telegraph: “Ah. That is what the man who was given the opportunity to present the Eurovision Song Contest by the AvroTros says. Very grateful everyone. And exactly how Gordon always responds to critical questions. (…) Maybe they can make a docuseries about how to deal with long toes!”