Wouter de Winther is not ashamed that the controversial Wierd Duk is his direct colleague at De Telegraaf. “With the diversity of faces, our newspaper is a versatile piece of cake.”
There is always a lot of fuss about Wierd Duk. His prominent role in the right-wing TV news News of the Day on SBS 6 was even a reason for presenters Art Rooijakkers and Malou Petter to resign. Why does Wouter de Winther not participate in that program, while he often participates in Eva Jinek’s talk show?
So what?
It is an agenda issue, Wouter believes. “I also did News of the Day, but that could no longer be combined with Jinek. The program has become a great success thanks to the many television reviews in the Volkskrant. It was a shame, they wrote, almost everyone who was there was ridiculed,” he says in de Volkskrant.
“And that’s okay, I’m in favor of a pluralistic media. People say that the program with people like Wierd Duk is very much on the right, but so what? Why aren’t people allowed to watch that?”
Currant bun
Does Wouter understand that Art had no interest in Wierd? “He needs to know that. I actually like the fact that I work at a newspaper where I don’t necessarily have to agree with everyone. And that with the diversity of faces we are a multi-faceted bunch, as former editor-in-chief Sjuul Paradijs called it.”
“I like the fact that we have a newspaper in the Netherlands where people who are fans of Wierd – and there are a lot of them in the Netherlands – feel at home. They might then be tempted to read something that claims something different than what Wierd says.”
South Pacific
All in all, Wouter has no problem with Wierd. “He has a strong opinion, and that opinion is not necessarily mine, but he does not write main comments, does not determine the course of the newspaper, is not in the editorial team, is not a political commentator, not even a reporter anymore. He has become an opinion maker for us.”
“And you don’t have to agree with his opinion, but that opinion does exist. Do you put that opinion on an island in the South Pacific, or do you also make dissonant sounds so that you get a sense of how people think in the Netherlands outside your own bubble? I am in favor of the latter.”