The VPRO is urgently advised to take Tim den Besten off the air, just like KRO-NCRV. Whose? The media editorial staff of the AD. “He is really very controversial.”
Tim den Besten appears to have misbehaved monstrously on Grindr, as a result of which two men are currently in therapy and a third may be experiencing financial damage. The presenter has not yet responded to anything, because he has a rare form of cancer and is sick in bed. And that makes everything very complicated.
Delete 100 Days?
Tim was actually supposed to be seen on television this entire week in the children’s quiz Waku Waku, right after the mega-popular Sinterklaas news. The final week was already on tape and Tim was one of the candidates. The KRO-NCRV has decided to throw away all five episodes. The damage item? About 100,000 euros.
In the meantime, the VPRO still has the program ‘100 Days In De Wijk’, by Tim and his best friend Nicolaas Veul, on the schedules. “The big question is of course: should VPRO also cancel 100 Days? That program will be on the docket in two weeks,” says media journalist Dennis Jansen in the AD Media podcast.
‘Just postpone it for a while’
What does AD chief Angela de Jong think? “They don’t have to cancel it from me, but I would postpone it for a while. I also find it very strange to broadcast it now.”
Dennis agrees: “He is really discredited.”
Angela: “Yes, he is very controversial. Yes, summarize it in two sentences for us, Manuel, for the people who are not in the gay scene every day…”
‘Stop it!’
When Manuel summarizes the accusations against Tim again, Angela comments: “Well, that seems really bad to me, if that turns out to be the case.”
Dennis: “But VPRO says: ‘He has not yet been convicted.’”
Angela: “No, but that of course also applies to Zapp.”
Manuel: “Yes, KRO-NCRV could also say that.”
Awkward
It’s just inconvenient to keep this on the channel, Angela thinks. “I think you should just not want to have the discussion. On the one hand you have the story that he is sick at home. He has a rare form of cancer and he is controversial, so I think as a viewer you are concerned with everything, except what is happening on that screen.”
Dennis: “It is also a shame for the program, of course.”
‘Taking its course’
Angela thinks so too. “Yes, I thought the 100 Days for the Classroom was a fantastic series. This is the third series they will now make. I’m really curious about it too. But I am now temporarily looking at Tim den Besten in a slightly different way and I wonder whether you should want that. It also has to do with kind of protecting your own people, right?”
She concludes: “Just postpone it until there is more clarity. I would just let it run its course if I were the VPRO.”