A few years after his departure from NOS Sport, Mart Smeets (76) says he cannot remember anything about the working atmosphere there, but is that credible? “I do not believe it!”
TV icon Mart Smeets also appears briefly in the much-discussed Volkskrant article about the work culture at NOS Sport. Aïcha Marghadi, the presenter who was asked to take a bath by Jack van Gelder, tells about her meeting with the grumpy television star. And that was not a pleasant meeting, according to her.
Martin has forgotten
Aïcha said she wanted to introduce herself to Mart. “After a broadcast, I approached him in a crowded editorial office. I held out my hand and introduced myself. He stared at me and my hand, took it, looked at colleagues around him and said, ‘What are we going to do with this?’”
Mart himself says that he no longer remembers that. “I had and have no idea that she worked at the NOS. I can hardly imagine letting go of that text. Not for me, I like manners and to violate them in that way… But I have lost many memories of the past.”
Unbelievable
Unbelievable, thinks Private editor-in-chief Evert Santegoeds. He thinks that Mart gets away very easily. “It seems as if the whole affair passes Mart Smeets by. He has no memories of what he used to experience,” he says in the podcast Strictly Private.
He continues cynically: “So he has forgotten that he has written nine books about all kinds of memories he has of his Studio Sport time. It is strange that he does know that, but everything else that happened at the editorial office all passed Mr Smeets.”
‘Very selective’
Colleague Jordi Versteegden: “So you don’t believe that?”
Evert replies: “Well, not really, no. Not if you remember every detail of the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France in 1986 and have forgotten all about the rest. That seems very selective to me.”