Sophie Hilbrand gets into an argument with talk show guest: ‘Not enough time!’

Sophie Hilbrand got into trouble on her talk show Bar Laat with a guest who felt she was not given enough speaking time. She even stepped up angrily. “This happened to me at Op1 too!”

© NPO

It’s been a while, but Bar Laat is in the news. And because of a riot. Presenter Sophie Hilbrand had two guests at the table last night to talk about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, namely Sander van Hoorn and Esther van der Most, director of an action group that is committed to the Palestinian cause.

Angry guest

When Sophie announces the topic, Esther is shocked. “I think it is a great pity that a large part of the conversation we were supposed to have was not had now, because something else was discussed with me before we came to the table and I also experienced that with Op1.”

“That I was sitting at the table and that I ultimately had much less time to talk about what I was going to talk about. I mean, pictures of my family would be shown. I would talk about my family being murdered. I don’t think we talked about that.”

What does Sophie say?

Sophie explains to this guest that that’s just how TV works. “I can explain it to you, and you can absolutely come back again, but if more time is spent on answering another question, or if more information comes to the table, then I can choose to continue with this for longer.”

“But that also means that you cannot discuss some things because several things have to be discussed at such a table and that is unfortunately the fate of the talk show host.”

Palestinian fate

Esther doesn’t think it’s right. “Yes, but it is also very often the fate of the people who speak about the Palestinians.”

Sophie: “I suspect that is generally not the case at our table, so I would like to invite you to come back again.”

Then she moves on to table guest Elodie Verweij. “Elodie, you understand that you do indeed have to speed up!”

Runaway

After a video (a so-called start-up) it appears that Esther has run away. Sophie: “I just have to say something, because something happened during the start of this video: Esther left the table, because it made her very emotional. She would talk about her family, relatives of hers died in Palestine and that is of course horrible.”

“I understand that it is also difficult for her, and Sander walked with her for a while. We will then stay in The Hague for a while.”

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