Mart Smeets ends his career with a big stain on his reputation. His denial that he did not embarrass Aïcha Marghadi is deeply unbelievable. “Bad person!”
No one can deny that Mart Smeets is an extremely haughty man. Former presenter Aïcha Margahdi’s anecdote that he embarrassed her terribly when she wanted to introduce herself in front of the entire NOS editorial team (“what should we do with this?”) is denied in a very unbelievable way by the presenter.
Unbelievable
Mart keeps shouting that he ‘can’t remember’, but everything screams that he really just behaved like a jerk to Aïcha. Especially when he speaks in interviewer Coen Verbraak’s program Buiten Beeld. In it, Mart threatens to give his host a ‘red card’ if he continues to talk about Aïcha (see below).
It is unbelievable, says columnist Johan Fretz. “Man who can always remember exactly who had to make an unfortunate poop break at what time in which year during the Tour that would cost him the polka dot jersey in favor of an obscure Italian (he also remembers that name) cannot imagine himself as an old colleague remember,” he writes X.
Bad person
The well-known X-influencer MiesBee even describes Mart as a bad person. “In terms of the wickedness of man, there is nothing this year that can top that.”
Story boss Guido den Aantrekker agrees. “All the Evil of the NPO united in the most arrogant hunk of bespectacled media meat.”
Columnist Stéphanie Hoogenberk: “Intimidating Coen Verbraak on a topic about intimidation. Very meta.”
Red card
Journalist Maurice Swirc finds Mart’s red card comment significant. “Mart Smeets thinks he can hand out a ‘red card’ to Coen Verbraak, who questions him calmly but sharply. It makes visible – almost tangible – how this man is used to meting out ‘humiliation’ as punishment in his life. In this way he confirms the Aïcha Marghadi story.”
Columnist Myrthe Hilkens pukes on Mart. “Narcissus. But how easy he is to talk about skating and cycling. How to put the whole problem together in just a few minutes. What a self-righteous bag of fries. ‘Icon of the Televee.’ It’s so pathetic to scream. Try this; ‘I must have been a jerk too.’”
Fragment
Mart’s fragment:
Updated 2:40 p.m
“Mart Smeets has contacted the makers and apologised,” said an NTR spokesperson. “He is shocked by his own reaction to Coen’s questions.”