Angela de Jong is ruthless for Khalid & Sophie: about half of her columns lately have been about this unfortunate talk show duo. “But aren’t you going a little too far?”
It is evident that Khalid & Sophie is not a talk show that appeals to a wide audience. The presenters are mainly there for their own supporters. But isn’t it the intention that Khalid Kasem and Sophie Hilbrand are there for everyone as the early talk show on the major public channel? Critics can’t wait for Eva Jinek to drive them off the air.
“Why, Angela?”
One of those critics is Angela de Jong. She practically kills the two in her infamous AD columns and is now confronted about it by Wilfred Genee. “Speaking of hardness: you can be hard, but you are very hard on Khalid & Sophie now, aren’t you? You are now completely destroying them,” he tells her in BNRs The Friday Move.
Can someone sound the hypocrisy bell? Ah, Wilfred of course asks with a sarcastic undertone. Provoking to Angela: “Those people are now being compared to M, simply pushed towards the exit, put in the garbage. Why do you do that? What’s behind that?”
Sharp column
Angela responds seriously. “What’s behind what? Behind a sharp column?”
Wilfred: “To tackle it so hard. Those people also do their best.”
Angela: “Yes, but yes, if you make a talk show at seven o’clock in the evening, then I think that the majority of Dutch people should recognize themselves in that. You could say whatever you wanted about De Wereld Draait Door, but if they had a political discussion at the table, then there were certainly different flavors.”
Canal belt noise
You really don’t see that with Khalid & Sophie, says Angela. “And I think in this day and age, where there are gaps between people everywhere, that as a public broadcaster you have some responsibility to ensure that you extend a hand and build a bridge.”
Wilfred agrees: “You only hear one sound. The canal belt sound, the left-wing sound.”
Angela: “I have the feeling that there are real activists there who have to convince us that the Netherlands has made such a terribly wrong choice (for the PVV, ed.). And the problem is: the voter always chooses what he wants and the voter is always right.”
‘Better lawyer’
If Khalid & Sophie goes off the air, what should we actually do with Khalid? “He seems like a very nice man and I wish him all the success in the world, but I think he is a better lawyer than a presenter,” said Angela.
Wilfred: “He plays a presenter.”
Angela: “Yes, that’s the idea I get.”