When will Suzanne Kunzeler, the hypocritical boss of BNNVARA, come under a magnifying glass? Tina Nijkamp wonders. “Just all those jokes from Theo Maassen!”
Matthijs van Nieuwkerk was about to start working at RTL when the Van Rijn report came out. And it is not even that report, but BNNVARA boss Suzanne Kunzeler who kicked him back into unemployment. He suddenly shouted without reservation that the TV star was also guilty of physical and sexual misconduct.
“Hello, Suzanne!”
How is it possible that Suzanne decides to knock Matthijs out without hard evidence, while she continues to cuddle with Theo Maassen, who is accused of much more serious accusations? For the time being, she will continue to broadcast his new program series Der Theo, from May on Friday evenings (!) on flagship NPO 1.
Tina Nijkamp, ratings authority and former boss of SBS 6, finds it impossible to follow. “I think the attention should now shift to Suzanne Kunzeler, because what is actually going on with that? Theo Maassen simply broadcasts them, she says nothing about Paul de Leeuw’s outburst against a director and she says nothing about that Zembla editor.”
Serious jokes
Apparently we only hear Suzanne when she feels resentment towards someone or when it suits her. Tina continues in her podcast Tina’s TV Update: “She was only talking about Matthijs van Nieuwkerk all the time, so my question is to Suzanne Kunzeler: what are you going to do with Theo Maassen?”
Theo was on stage at Toomler last week and made terrible jokes about the domestic violence he is accused of. These were broadcast in Shownieuws, but the comedian was not pleased with that. The show section has now cut the quotes from the broadcast in question, but Tina still received them.
Is that possible?
Tina found the jokes disgusting. “Yes, he was very rude in his first appearance since that publication about the alleged domestic violence against his wife, among others. Yes, what is Suzanne going to do? Is that possible? Can you make jokes about that and what do you think about that as a broadcaster? And why is one possible and the other not?”
“I would really like to hear an interview with Suzanne Kunzeler about how she looks at it and why she thinks one thing is possible and another not, and why she does not follow the example of the VPRO that says: ‘We think that Theo Maassen cannot present Zomergasten, because he has not publicly commented on that issue.’ They resent that.”
Under pressure
Media critic Victor Vlam thinks that BNNVARA makes a muddy figure. “If the VPRO takes these allegations seriously in this way, it will of course put pressure on BNNVARA to do the same, to also act here. They haven’t done that so far. It is very difficult for BNNVARA to continue this silently.”
It must be a financial matter that Suzanne wants to continue the Der Theo series, Victor thinks. “But I think that is becoming untenable,” he says in the podcast The Communicados.
His co-host Lars Duursma responded: “I think so too.”