Maarten van Rossem does not regret his misbehavior in the talk show Op1. There he talked through a NATO top executive all Thursday. “That was my intention too.”
The talk show Op1 had a top guest in the house on Thursday evening to talk about the possible invasion of Russia in Ukraine, namely David van Weel. He is the right-hand man of the great NATO boss Jens Stoltenberg. Maarten van Rossem sat right next to David and he rigorously demanded his speaking time. He even started talking right through David.
‘Was my intention’
There has been a lot of criticism, including from the men of VI. “I understood that many people were annoyed that I had talked through the NATO man? But that was the intention on my part”, Maarten responds in his podcast Maarten van Rossem – The Podcast†
Why was that his intention? “I thought the NATO man had been speaking for a very long time and it was assured by the editors that I would also be given every opportunity to give my own view, namely that it might not be too bad with the chance that Putin will be military action.”
‘I’m just rambling on’
At one point Maarten had been given the floor. “And then Sven Kockelmann again gave the floor to the NATO man, because the NATO man thought he was quite impressive. Then I thought: yes, hey, I’ll never get to speak like that, so I’ll just keep on rambling. That is a tried and tested tactic on talk shows.”
NATO CEO David also did that, says Maarten. “But they think it’s worse for me than for the NATO man. That is of course an official person who sits there with a certain weight.”
Sven irritated
Op1 host Sven Kockelmann was a bit irritated, Maarten noticed. “He was also irritated, but if you say something, they don’t care. It’s much better to just talk through it, then you make it clear that you don’t like the arrangement of the conversation.”
He continues: “Besides, let’s face it, when you’re talking to a group of people in normal conversations, isn’t it perfectly normal to interrupt each other and talk at the same time? Surely it should just be a living, normal conversation instead of all of you sitting around waiting like dead men for the last party to finish?”
left quickly
Did Maarten talk it out after the broadcast? “No, I’m actually free on set and jumped off again. It was the first time that it was recorded again in Hilversum. I was home in fifteen minutes.”
“After that there are no more bitterballen to get. You could get a glass of wine, but I don’t drink anymore, so that’s not much of a use. There used to be a kind of coziness in the cafe there, but I don’t think it was very cosy. It was a huge space. So big that it’s hard to cram fun into it.”
Fragment
You can see the fragment in question in which Maarten talks through David from 5:22: