#Fons #van #Westerloo #bad #atmosphere #WNL #caused #young #people #fighting
If Loek Hermans, of all people, emerges as a beacon of peace and reason, then you’ve made it big. Broadcaster WNL, which likes to portray itself as a ‘cheerful right-wing’, appears to consist of a collection of men for whom the meaning of the term ‘sagacity’ cannot be stretched far enough. And so it was possible that Hermans, the supervisor who rarely supervises, suddenly sounded like the voice of reason.
The manipulative character of WNL boss Bert Huisjes is an open secret at the media park. His nightly texts to employees are infamous, in which he first barks at them, then gently reminds them that they have a temporary contract and that he is the one who pays their salary. The latter is not correct, but who dares, after having just finished yelling, to point out to his boss that it is the taxpayer who is paying for the ego project of a power-hungry bully?
Pussies
Several former presenters, including Eva Jinek, Leonie ter Braak, Merel Westrik and Roos Moggré, had the courage this week to reveal in the newspaper what goes on behind the scenes at WNL. That rarely happens, such articles usually rely on nameless sources, after which the Johan Derksens of this world can fulminate that it is ‘cowardly’ to complain anonymously.
According to broadcaster and supervisor Fons van Westerloo, the criticism came from ‘disappointed former employees’ who wanted to destroy Huisjes. He waved away complaints about a culture of fear: “Come on, journalists aren’t wimps, are they?” If they had something to complain about, they could always contact him, he added. Van Westerloo had also made a problem analysis: the bad atmosphere at WNL was not caused by Huisjes, but by ‘very young people who all want to present and fight each other out’.
The most beautiful girls
We had rarely eaten it so salty, but that turned out to be without Emile Bode, former WNL editor-in-chief and currently working for Omroep Max. He felt it necessary to voice a ‘counter voice’ ‘in these times of mediocrity, whining, complaining and crying cry’. According to him, WNL had an editorial staff ‘with the most beautiful girls’, but Westrik was ‘very attractive’ but also ‘lazy and a whiner’, and he thought Jinek was ‘hysterical and unreasonable’.
And then there were the male WNL presenters Rick Nieman and Sven Kockelmann who recognized ‘really nothing’ in the story, and Jort Kelder who thought that a ‘cultural revolution in Maoist style’ was going on in the media world, while in his time at Quote the coke dealers still drove back and forth, and during the ski weekend the management handed out condoms.
Ultimately, it was VVD mastodon and supervisory board stacker Loek Hermans who was able to calm things down. He found the described behavior ‘unacceptable’ and was ‘very disappointed’ that the initial statement from the supervisory board had given the impression that they did not take it all that seriously. In a meeting with the staff, he apologized without any consequences. Van Westerloo was not present. Dotje.
About the author: Roelf Jan Duin has been writing for Het Parool since 2014, first mainly about politics, now about social themes and popular culture. In his Sterrenstof section he analyzes the media landscape every week.
Loek HermansBeeld /
