In his popular column, Youp van ‘t Hek opens the attack on Sam Hagens, star reporter for Hart van Nederland and regular guest in Today Inside. “This is school newspaper level.”
Sam Hagens is being criticized for asking Ukrainian President Zelensky a question about Caroline van der Plas’ choice not to attend his speech because he visited our country on Remembrance Day. Completely irrelevant, Sam was told in his own clubhouse Today Inside.
dummy
Grower Youp van ‘t Hek fully agrees. He calls Sam in today NRC ‘the journalist from some Dutch fool (I’m guessing SBS) who asked Zelensky what he thought about Van der Plas missing his speech’.
He continues: “So the man who travels more than Pope John-Paul II ever did and only to prevent the utter slaughter of his people is seriously asked if the absence of Caroline van der Plas affects him.”
School newspaper
Youp, however, is not impressed with Caroline. “Caroline who, when she asks her constituents to iron the flags hung upside down, sees that almost all farmer’s wives climb the flagpole with an iron.”
Not important enough for a question to Zelensky, Youp wants to say. “Even Rutte was ashamed of this school newspaper journalist. And we all know: Mark is hardly ashamed of anything.”
Angry politicians
Wilfred Genee also thinks it is clear that Rutte was quite pissed off about this question. It doesn’t help that Sam is already known as a plush bully.
Sam has sometimes come into conflict with the RVD about this, he says in this week’s section In The Hallways. “They thought I was too sharp in an interview. That was with Hugo de Jonge. They thought it was too sharp. When I asked three times if he could stay on, at that Dansen met Janssen case. They didn’t like that very much.”
Support for Sam
After Youp’s attack, Sam also receives support from journalist Bas Paternotte. He tweets: “Widely respected reporter Sam Hagens is attacked here in a Putinesque way by NRC that has never been caught with a critical question.”
Ton F. van Dijk calls Sam ‘by now one of the best’ and Story boss Guido den Aantrekker: “Youp is over the hill. But nobody dares to tell him.”
Column
Youp’s column: