Ruud de Wild plays down the misconduct of Matthijs van Nieuwkerk on the editorial floor of De Wereld Draait Door. “I notice you think it’s all exaggerated,” complains a listener.
Jumping into the breach for discredited celebrity colleagues has now become a kind of sport for Ruud de Wild. Whether it’s Marco Borsato or Thijs Römer, it doesn’t matter to him. As long as he can shout, that’s it piece by piece trial by media and people should leave these stars alone.
Police of conscience
Now Matthijs van Nieuwkerk also gets a helping hand. Ruud seems to suggest on the radio that BNNVARA only threw Matthijs in front of the bus to save Tim Hofman’s credibility. After all, he makes a program about social abuses for the broadcaster and has single-handedly shut down The Voice.
Ruud cynical in his program on NPO Radio 2: “I am really upset that Tim Hofman has fired Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. Yes, right? It must have been something like that, because he is a bit of BNNVARA’s conscience police.”
‘I can’t find anything anymore’
Jumping into the breach for Thijs Römer gave Ruud a lot of trouble last week. That is why he does not want to comment too explicitly on the Matthijs case. “I have resolved to find nothing of this from now on. Not from MeToo, not from ehh… Why not? We are so perpendicular to each other at a given moment.”
Ruud’s sidekick reads a reaction from listener Mireille a little later. She says: “By not finding anything and not judging, you choose sides in advance. I notice you think it’s all exaggerated. Is that right? That is allowed, but base yourself on the facts and think about how many people you are hurting by not finding anything.”
‘Yes, exactly!’
Another listener, Nel, says: “I think something, Ruud. The Dutch are becoming a bit of a vinegar whiner. If we don’t have a problem, we’ll look for one.”
Ruud wholeheartedly agrees: “Yes, exactly. It’s also a bit in the Dutch, maybe, isn’t it?”
With statements like this, Ruud hints that he also thinks the Matthijs issue is just a whining. And what does he think of the call to fire NPO’s TV boss Frans Klein? Also nonsense: “Frans Klein no longer works there?!”
Jokes
Ruud has been making jokes about the abuses at DWDD for days now, for example: “I’m on my guard today. I watch my voice. I’m not going to talk too loud, because it could be interpreted by your team – the editors are here too – that it sounded like shouting and that it’s unsafe here.”
He seems to think it’s all just a witch hunt. “I see Matthijs van Nieuwkerk being sent home. Everyone calls out that he has kept the honor to himself, but that was really with a chat, because BNNVARA did not stand up for him. It remains to be seen who will be next.”
Super dangerous
Ruud draws it all into the absurd. “I was sometimes parked next to Matthijs van Nieuwkerk, so it could just be my turn.”
And: “Gijs Staverman knows Matthijs van Nieuwkerk very well and sometimes went home for coffee with him and they shouted at each other, so there is a good chance that Gijs also ehh… And what about Paul de Leeuw with Schreeuw van De Leeuw? . It’s coming soon too! Super dangerous.”
Empty Media Park
According to Ruud, ‘with this reasoning’ nobody can stay in their place in Hilversum anymore. “I think it is strange what is happening, because if you continue to reason like this, there will be no one left at the Media Park in a week or two.”
Bettina Holwerda, who has pulled out from behind Jim Bakkum’s counter to play Ruud’s laughing sidekick, thinks it’s all funny. She has been calling out of nowhere several times for days: “On your knees!”
Laughing at colleagues who are victims of transgressive behaviour. It’s all possible at KRO-NCRV.
