Sywert van Lienden gave Matthijs van Nieuwkerk a ‘kiss of death’

What else is there to say about DWDD-gate, a week after the cluster bomb that de Volkskrant threw at the Media Park? In fact, pretty much everything has already been said. If anything stands out in the tumult about the charming talk show host who turned out to be a tyrant, it’s how good we’ve become at conducting these kinds of national debates. Pat on the back for us, you might say.

What a difference from, say, five years ago, when the conversations about MeToo, transgressive behavior and power relations got off to a jerky start and there was always someone who wondered whether we were ‘going too far’ and whether there are no more important issues to worry about. These are just ‘the ways of the world,’ said writer Jessica Durlacher in perspective about the Harvey Weinstein affair, even at the table at DWDD. Women just had to become more resilient, was her message at the time.

Pity and compassion

We have gone through countless scandals, each of different nature and seriousness, and the media seem to have found a form in which these kinds of conversations can be conducted. Neatly, almost routinely, all perspectives have been discussed on radio, television and in the newspapers in recent days. There was pity for the victims and even some compassion for Van Nieuwkerk, but attention soon shifted to those responsible, who had failed to intervene. And, even more importantly, a broader conversation started about what behavior we consider desirable, whether yelling and cursing in the workplace is normal and what ‘playing top sport’ actually is. This is how the debate transcended the showbiz riot.

The kiss of death from Sywert

Not that there weren’t any dissonances at all. How silly they were DWDDregulars who said that all those times they never noticed what was going on behind the scenes. Quite weeds. And there were some intimates who stood up for Van Nieuwkerk (Eus, Paul Haenen, Peter Vandermeersch, Mike Boddé) and who actually seemed to find the whole matter a whining. But maybe this is what you can hope friends do for you when you’re in trouble. The kiss of death came from Sywert van Lienden, who wished ‘Matthijs’ (as he is apparently allowed to call him, and not ‘Mister Van Nieuwkerk’) ‘good luck’ on Twitter.

In the coming months, research will be conducted, a report will be published with solemn recommendations and Van Nieuwkerk will appear on the screen again at some point after he has withdrawn for a few months in the east of the country. Cynics will then say that after a glass and a puddle, everything has remained as it was at the Media Park. But as a society, we have taken a tiny step forward through this episode.