Özcan Akyol is deliberately sowing confusion to cover up his lie about Matthijs van Nieuwkerk’s howler video, says Today Inside expert Victor Vlam. “He’s a liar.”
It is one of the biggest media riots of the year so far: the howler video for which Özcan Akyol ended his friendship with Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. Last week a fragment from an old DWDD documentary suddenly surfaced in which Matthijs behaves somewhat irritated. Could this be the infamous howler film? People couldn’t believe it…
Not fair
Özcan caused astonishment by indicating that this is indeed the video why Matthijs is now walking around with a knife in his back in the outskirts of Almen. At least, that’s what Eus confirmed to Wilfred Genee. He told René van der Gijp again that this is not the video and that other material is circulating, but according to René that is not true.
It has really become a very big thing, analyzes VI expert Victor Vlam in his podcast The Communicados. “If we just take stock: this has become extreme, but also extremely painful for Eus, because it is really very damaging to his reputation. It just became very clear that he was not honest.”
‘Confuse them’
There is no video of Matthijs screaming at all, Victor emphasizes. “He actually said: I have canceled my loyalty to Matthijs van Nieuwkerk because there is a video that has completely and totally changed my view. And there just appears to be no video. Well, I also find it interesting to at least determine that.”
“I think Eus’ strategy was: if you can’t convince them, confuse thembecause he kept saying contradictory things. The story is so terribly complex. Unless it’s your full-time job to follow this stuff, I think most people have given up by a long time ago.”
Contradictions
Victor finds it strange that Wilfred and René alone were told two completely different stories by Eus. “There are constant contradictions that make it difficult to interpret. That’s why the ‘confuse them’ strategy can work.”
Why? “I think a lot of people just think: yes, what he said is not entirely correct, but they are not aware that he lied. And that is really the case here. There really is no doubt about it.”
‘I find it bizarre’
Özcan said in Humberto Tan’s talk show that the howler video would contain images of a side of Matthijs that he does not know. “Well, if you look at that video from that documentary with those eyes, with that look… Yes, to be very honest, he is a bit directive there, but I don’t find that problematic.”
A boss should be able to be that every now and then, according to Victor. “I honestly don’t think that can be a reason to lose your loyalty to Matthijs. So I find it bizarre.”
‘Really lied’
All in all, Eus turns out to be very unreliable, according to Victor. “Let’s leave no doubt about that: this is really a lie. I think that lying as an opinion maker is really very harmful, because you can indeed occasionally go off the rails as an opinion maker by formulating a slightly too sharp opinion.”
“I think Eus’ opinion about boas in December is an example of this. You can usually be forgiven for that. Lying is really of a different order, because the moment you start making things up, it raises the question of what other things you have lied about. I think lying is really unacceptable.”