Joop van den Ende continues to stand up for Matthijs van Nieuwkerk, who has close ties with the company of his daughter Iris van den Ende. “This is just PR work.”
TV and theater billionaire Joop van den Ende talks this weekend in an interview with Fidelity that he hates the cancel culture so much. “What Matthijs van Nieuwkerk has done cannot be justified. He should have controlled himself and apparently could not handle the pressure well, but the person ultimately responsible in this story is still the employer.”
‘Matthijs is a victim’
Matthijs is also a victim, Joop thinks. “If you employ editorial staff who complain about their colleague, you must have the guts to bring such a presenter to you and say: one thing, we are going to do things differently from now on! What is your problem, why are you acting like this, what can we help you with? To talk! I haven’t done anything else my whole life.”
He continues: “BNNVARA has failed here. A hundred percent. What good is a report, anonymized, afterwards? As an employer, respond immediately to complaints from your people, talk to each other! Again: Matthijs should have controlled himself, but I also see him as a victim. A victim of poor leadership.”
‘This is just PR work’
These statements by Joop don’t go down well with Guido den Aantrekker, editor-in-chief of Story. “And again Joop does PR work for his protégé Matthijs. While he should know better than anyone that the general public rightly no longer accepts this – certainly not now,” he says X.
It’s all very opportunistic, Guido thinks. “Is this the same Joop who once had Grace Jones thrown out of TV Studio Aalsmeer for unacceptable behavior?”
Business risk
Guido is surprised that RTL continues to support Matthijs, despite the fact that he has now also been accused of physical and sexual misconduct. “Stupid. Van Nieuwkerk becomes a business risk. Exit better.”
Guido does not subscribe to the criticism that it is all too much of a joke. “That embarrassing, stupid bullshit… We need to know the RIGHT names. We pay for that shit with tax money.”