Patrick Kicken: Unheard of Netherlands, not an attack but an enrichment!
[BLOG] What a bunch of fearful people there at the NPO. Everything else is scary. And that for years. Everyone broadcaster must properly confirm to this status quo, may deviate a little bit to the left from a little bit to the right, but then it stops. And then suddenly there was Ongehoord Nederland, the brand new broadcaster of Arnold Karskens. What a relief. And I can talk about it first-hand, because I received about five seats as a panel member in the program ‘Ongehoord Nieuws’, directly on the NOS news at 12 noon on NPO1. I’ll take you behind the scenes at the newest and most exciting broadcaster in the Netherlands.
The freedom of expression. God oh god we are always proud of that in the Netherlands. Yes, you can differ, but not on the public radio and TV stations. There everything is measured against the ‘measuring rod of virtue’. I was therefore happy to see that a broadcaster came up against this. Because what you say is absolutely wrong. If you only. Every form of news reporting is colored (certainly with the decency rascals of the NPO), formed words may not be used, suggestions may not be aroused, etcetera. While the same NPO recently missed the mark with the coverage of the book about Anne Frank’s The Traitor, who, in retrospect, turned out not to be the traitor, or again, but maybe.
It is therefore scandalous to see how a promising initiative such as ON! any is to be sabotaged, by imposing or leaking the intention that even the great new NPO broadcaster is threatened by ON! supporters, which has not been proven at all. When there is finally a broadcaster that does something about the broadcasting system, everyone is on their back legs. It reminds me most of what was on Radio Veronica in the 1970s. That also had to be grasped as quickly as possible, because then everything could not be done like that. At ON! speaking to people who do have something to say, do their bit well and substantiate it. Every now and then I join in to bring some lightness to the brewery. For example, I described the following about the detailed cancellation of the ArenA concert by Mick Jagger and the Stones. Do I have to prove that? No, I’ll tell you what’s going on among people who will attend the concert just like me:
On one of the first times that I was a guest there, I even let myself go about the feeling that has long dominated Hugo de Jonge:
I was also allowed to explain my next one around the murder of Pim Fortuyn, about which I wrote a column earlier:
And even deflate about the waking community’s madness over prawn crackers at Lidl:
To even bring it back to radio, as a ‘radio journalist’, to describe the sadness surrounding Dolf Jansen and Paul de Leeuw:
And finally gave me space to also feel the feeling that many white men my age struggle with, especially if you say anything online that can be misinterpreted:
What a vanity Kicken, to place six fragments in your own column. I used to be disgusted by you but now completely! There’s nothing wrong with being disgusted by someone or disagreeing with someone. That is the function of a statement. Nothing fake news, what is stated above is -my- experience and that adds something to the debate. You don’t have to agree with everything, if we think the same thing and say the same thing, then one of us is superfluous. The major problem of the current NPO is of course that part of the Dutch population hears itself and sees itself reflected in the programs. It’s not for nothing that farmers take to the highway en masse with their tractor, they feel, correct, for years now. It is too late that they can suddenly show up to have their say.
Oh yeah, I would even take behind the scenes there at ON! That must be a club of right-wing radical rascals, right? Far from it. I’ve been walking around Hilversum since 1995 and this is so far the least pretentious and warmest club program makers I’ve met. No sense of ‘we know better’ which is usually the mores of most public broadcasters. A warm bath where there is room for you to come, you are not instructed in advance what to say and what not to say, you do not have to spend an hour discussing with an editor on the phone what you plan to start as a panel member. Just mutual trust, a good atmosphere, a good team and a feeling of ‘we contribute something’. something many other broadcasters could learn from! And the fact that a new public broadcaster evokes so much in people and journalists is a sign that there is a lot of desire.
You can find all other fragments of Ongehoord Nederland on their YouTube channel† Broadcasts on their website† Form your own opinion about the first offer before the summer break, instead of blindly following the demonization of the Netherlands’ latest public broadcaster. Or read the perfect pronunciation tube column by Ton Verlind about the importance of a different sound: ‘Penalizing for an opinion is the ax to the root of this broadcasting system’.