It is doubtful that Jeroen Pauw sits so often at Khalid & Sophie’s talk show table, because there is a conflict of interest, says Victor Vlam. “He is Khalid Kasem’s coach!”
Jeroen Pauw has an increasingly prominent role in the public debate. In the run-up to the House of Representatives elections, he was a regular guest on the talk show Khalid & Sophie. There he defended himself against criticism of the SBS 6 debate he produced; there was a PVV voter in the audience agitating against Timmermans.
Coach Peacock
It was mainly Sophie Hilbrand who asked Jeroen questions about this; Khalid Kasem kept quiet. Why is that? It has to do with a conflict of interest, media critic Victor Vlam explains in the podcast The Communicados. According to him, Khalid is one of the many talk show hosts who is coached by Jeroen.
Victor says: “It is known that Pauw has fulfilled that role from a number of presenters. Of course we know that he has coached Eva Jinek in the past. Rutger Castricum, that has also been announced. He also coached Hélène Hendriks. And what we can indeed report is that he also coached Khalid Kasem.”
“His mentor!”
Khalid has been spotted several times on the floor of TVBV, the company to which Jeroen is affiliated, according to Victor. “And he had one-on-one sessions with Pauw there. Khalid Kasem is coached by Jeroen Pauw. And this is also a very important one in the context of the debate that SBS 6 has organized.”
He continues: “What are the chances do you think that Khalid Kasem will criticize or comment on the SBS debate produced by his mentor Jeroen Pauw? I think that chance is of course nil. Not only may he have lost a table guest, but he has also lost his coach.”
‘He does not do that’
And Khalid has also lost his relationship with someone who is very powerful in the television world, according to Victor. “In other words, he doesn’t. And that is exactly what Talpa paid for. They pay Jeroen Pauw a very large sum of money because they know that many people no longer dare to criticize that debate.”
Why Jeroen is so popular as a coach? “It is someone who has the opportunity to crown the new talk show king or queen of the Netherlands. That will definitely be a reason for some people to ask him to be coached.”
Double hat
Co-host Lars Duursma has difficulty with Khalid’s double hats. “The viewer must know from what interest you say something and for me that is what makes the relationship between coach and coachee so problematic. Very often the coachee, the person being coached, does not want half of the Netherlands to know a) that you are being coached, b) by whom.”
And that makes it all very non-transparent, he concludes. “So the viewer doesn’t know what’s going on.”