De Volkskrant is working on a Matthijs van Nieuwkerk-like scandal article about Bert Huisjes, the chief boss of the talk show Op1. “That is why the investigation at the NPO has also been postponed.”
It is a hard blow for Matthijs van Nieuwkerk: the investigation into abuses at the NPO, which also includes the toxic working atmosphere at De Wereld Draait Door, will take more time than expected. Nothing is expected until the fourth quarter of this year. Why is that? It became clear last night on the talk show The Orange Summer.
John knows more
Omroep MAX boss Jan Slagter expressed his dissatisfaction with the delayed report. “The investigation keeps being postponed!”
Table guest Özcan Akyol thinks it’s silly that Jan calls this, because the MAX boss has inside information about why that has been postponed. And that has everything to do with Jan’s buddy Bert Huisjes, the top bobo of Op1. “Yes, but that will come, Jan, you know that… I don’t know if you can say that… Because that committee has to process two more files.”
‘Something is Coming’
Then Özcan explodes: “You know something is coming next week…”
Hélène Hendriks apparently already knows about this. “About Op1.”
Jan: “Yes, but that…”
Özcan to Hélène: “You always know everything, don’t you? Boy-young-young.”
Jan: “Yes, but about Op1… That is also, boy… If you peel it off completely, nothing really happened.”
Hélène: “Then why is there an investigation?”
Volskrant article
Jan: “Well, there won’t really be an investigation. They’ll take it. The NOS will take them with them, but if someone else has complained to the committee about a different program, they will also take that with them. It is broadcaster-wide, so it does not mean that there is only a focus on De Wereld Draait Door.”
Hélène: “So you don’t fear that Op1 article in de Volkskrant?”
Jan: “Well… Look, you know… If an article is full of anonymous sources and ‘everyone agrees’… Yes, I don’t think that’s an article. It’s not about me, it’s about Bert Huisjes among others. I was there for all those conversations.”
“Like It’s Murder”
What does Jan think of what he learned during those conversations? “You can say about that: okay, maybe it wasn’t that handy, he apologized, but that there will now be a reconstruction in de Volkskrant as if a murder had happened…”
Hélène: “He would have an authoritarian leadership style.”
Jan: “Well, I don’t know. If you ask something three times – and maybe I am a bit like that myself – and it still hasn’t happened, I say: damn it, when are you going to do that? A bit along those lines. No transgressive behavior has taken place.”
‘Then it stops’
Merel Westrik then subtly remarks: “In front of you.”
Jan continues to support his buddy Bert. “Where I was. I was also involved in the conversations of the people concerned. That’s Rachel Franse, that name is already in the newspaper. I was there. I also heard Bert Huisjes say three weeks later: ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry. This was not personal.’”
Here Jan refers to the quarrel that prevailed at Op1 between Bert and Rachel, who has left. “He has offered to talk to her and go out to dinner. If she doesn’t want that, it will end at some point.”