It is not a choice on the part of Sophie Hilbrand that she invited table topper Jelle de Graaf to her talk show, according to media expert Victor Vlam. “His action was very fearful for Beau van Erven Dorens.”
Beau van Erven Dorens was shocked last Tuesday when climate activist Jelle de Graaf in his talk show, completely nervous, pulled something from his inside pocket. It soon turned out to be glue, with which he decided to stick himself to the talk show table. It made for a memorable TV moment.
‘Sophie uncollegial’
It was a shock for Beau as well. “It was intimidating and threatening, because just before that he reached for his inside pocket. That was glue, but of course you don’t know that. I was very shocked, because you never know what will happen. These are scary times,” the presenter explained afterwards in the AD.
Media expert Victor Vlam understands Beau’s feeling very well. He therefore finds it hurtful that his TV colleague Sophie Hilbrand chose to receive the same Jelle de Graaf in her talk show two days later. “I honestly think it’s uncollegial of Khalid & Sophie,” he says in his podcast The Communicados.
‘Beau was anxious’
Sophie just goes for effect, says Victor. “I don’t think they should have invited him. Surely this is someone who has crossed the borders. You’re going to reward someone who does pretty radical things. That fear with Beau was present and I think it is really understandable.”
Victor would be shocked too. “At a certain point you see that the activist is very nervous. He reaches for his breast pocket and you know… If you don’t know what’s going to happen, then there’s the fear: what is he taking out of his pocket and is it maybe something worse than two-component glue?”
angry call
You never know what such a climate activist will get these days, says Victor. “I can imagine that fear, that he and people behind the scenes experienced it as threatening. That makes this a very serious situation, I think.”
He concludes: “If I were the boss at Jinek and Beau, I think I would make an angry call with your counterpart at Khalid & Sophie. However, they say that they see this as uncollegial.”
Communicados
The podcast The Communicados:
