Will it ever be fine with news of the day? Now the right-wing TV news has again put a guest in the studio that was not instructed to totally. “That man hardly comes from his words!”
It was really a bit uncomfortable television: a debate in the right-wing SBS 6-Journaal News of the day Between a pre- and opponent of zoos in the Netherlands. As a proponent, Roger van Leeuwen, owner of Zoo de Paay in Beesd, was invited. And that poor man did not come live on television really from his words.
Stammering guest
Roger’s most important argument? “Those animals don’t know better. Everyone is free to go there or stay at home, so if you are against, then you will stay away.”
Midegast Lale Gül tries to help him: “So if you release those animals now, then you don’t actually do them?”
Unfortunately for Roger and for the viewer, he then only keeps stammering and stuttering.
No rules
The proponent of animal park closure, Erwin Vermeulen from Animal Rights, agrees that releasing the animals is not an option. He does think that zoos should stop breeding, so that there are no more caught animals in 25 or 30 years. “Yes, but why would I stop breeding …”, Roger stams.
Then he is suddenly silent for seconds: “There are no rules that prohibit that. Because a number of people find this … You just showed that there are 10 million visitors, so they disagree.”
“It’s going wrong”
Mediaciticus Victor Vlam finds it very uncomfortable TV. “Oops. It’s going wrong with News of the Day. A guest who comes to argue against a ban on zoos hardly comes out of his words. Unfortunately, it is very uncomfortable, while this guest represents the position of the target group of the program. Awkigig.”
This is the fault of the TV makers, he says X. “A good preliminary interview would have prevented this. Then it turned out that this guest was not suitable for a TV program in which he had to debate with an animal activist.”
‘Big Misser’
TV authority Tina Nijkamp watched the same broadcast of News of the day and found the opening a blunder. “They opened with the fireworks ban instead of the stabbing in Amsterdam. After that also an item about zoos. Very strange because of course (in addition to the death of Loretta Schrijver) this is the news of the day.”
What do the viewing figures say? “We see that huge blunder in the viewing figures: only 249 thousand viewers and 4.8 percent market share but in the commercial target group 25 to 54 years. Practice. The early edition of Hart van Nederland, which is in front of it, even scored higher with 290 thousand viewers and 10.4 percent share,” she concludes on her analysis canal.