Matthijs van Nieuwkerk has behaved like a huge TV executioner for years, causing dozens of employees to fall ill, de Volkskrant reveals. BNNVARA now alludes to his farewell.
De Volkskrant published the controversial article yesterday evening at half past eight in which Matthijs van Nieuwkerk is put on the chopping block. ‘In the successful TV machine of DWDD, many an editor was ground,’ reads the headline extremely long articlefor which no fewer than seventy people were interviewed.
Motherfucker Matthijs
It is no secret that Matthijs often behaved tyrannically in his years with De Wereld Draait Door, but de Volkskrant now paints a disconcerting picture of a dictatorial, sadistic and somewhat psychopathic presenter. “As a result, dozens of employees suffered burnouts, serious psychological complaints such as anxiety and panic attacks.”
The newspaper spoke to victims who still suffer from this to this day. De Volkskrant has seen medical files that confirm this. “Some are still less employable,” the newspaper said. “Dozens of people have permanently left the television world because of this.”
‘On your knees!’
One of the incidents quoted by de Volkskrant takes place after a technical error in the broadcast of November 21, 2019. Matthijs runs up the stairs to the studio after the broadcast. “Who is responsible for this?” he shouts, according to seven witnesses with whom the newspaper has spoken.
Matthijs stands a few centimeters away from a senior sound engineer, after which he has an outburst of anger ‘so extreme that many still remember it three years later’. Employees quickly close the doors: no one is allowed to see or hear this, the newspaper writes.
Sadistic TV star
The tyrannical Matthijs really goes on a rampage. “What are you standing there man? It’s Mr Van Nieuwkerk for you! You! You should have got down on your knees and said sorry. Say: ‘Sorry mister Van Nieuwkerk’.”
And then this sound man, a contemporary of Matthijs, responds to that. “That’s sadism,” responds Theodor Holman in a tweet.
Bystanders did nothing. “We were all in shock. This went beyond all borders,” says a former editor. “It went so far that I decided that I never want to work with Matthijs again.”
Away from BNNVARA?
The Volkskrant article is full of such examples. Matthijs refused to respond for a long time, until yesterday afternoon, a few hours before publication. “In that statement, he expressed no regret or reaction to the fact that so many employees fell ill,” the newspaper said.
BNNVARA then says: “Matthijs’s reaction disappoints us and forces us to consider.”
Fifteen minutes later, after pressure from the broadcaster, Matthijs sends a response in which he suddenly regrets. “We will include the new statement in our deliberations and in the conversations we have with Matthijs,” said the broadcaster.
Two statements
BNNVARA repeats the doubts about the collaboration with Matthijs in a press statement: “Today we received two different statements from Matthijs, which do not do justice to the conversations we had with him. We are disappointed about that. That forces us to consider and we will discuss this with Matthijs.”
BNNVARA is of course a bit hypocritical, because the Volkskrant investigation shows that the broadcaster was aware of Matthijs’ extreme misconduct all those years.
John van den Heuvel thinks that the broadcaster is now using this reaction from Matthijs to discharge him after all. “They will now use that reaction to do something,” he predicts in Today Inside.
Sadistic Matthews
A tweet:
