Media torpederen het Staatsbelang. Superschoof, doe iets!

In a rather Annoying conversation lays TV multimillionaire Jeroen Pauw, great collector of taxes, the fire to the shins of Ronald Plasterk (in the NRC, Plasterk was accused of not having acted with integrity because of a patent application, see the Articles on Maurice.nl). Why was that conversation cringeworthy? This was not only because of the haughty Pauw, who flaunted his haughty agitation, but also because of table mop Suse van Kleef, who tried to stab one dagger after another into Plasterk's back with an amiable smile. The two of them sat comfortably on it.

Zo vertelt Plasterk dat hij Bas Haan, door Jeroen Pauw omschreven als 'gerenommeerd journalist van de NRC', wel degelijk heeft geïnformeerd over schriftelijke instemming met de gang van zaken van de directeur van het AMC. Daarin wordt bevestigd dat de universiteit afstand doet van elke aanspraak op de uitvinding van Plasterk en wenst hem veel succes. Plasterk had zulke verklaringen nodig voor eventuele investeerders en dan is een handdruk niet voldoende, dat moet even zwart op wit, zo legt Plasterk uit en hij voegt daaraan toe (18:30 in de video) "dat was kennelijk niet interessant om in het artikel op te nemen'. Dan grijpt de tafeldame in: "Hij [Bas Haan] gaat natuurlijk wel over de inhoud van zijn eigen artikel."

Really, lady? Leave out facts that are not convenient for you? Stop researching if it might weaken your biased position? And that is a 'renowned journalist of the NRC'? Is that really your professional ethics, your way of doing 'quality journalism'? Damn, I have other words but I don't write them down. This makes my stomach turn. Suse van Kleef grew up in one Journalist's family. What a people they are.

This is where the power of the Mainstream Media emerges.

Had Pauw checked a few things, as Maurice did, for example? Well, no. What about Suse? Of course not, he just bleats along with the journalists' herd. After all, they have read NRC, well then you know what it's like. They all stand up for each other. Loyal though.

En ze vervolgt: "Want als het niet waar is, dan dan..." Jawel, maar als wat NRC schrijft niet waar is, dan, dan...? Ja wat dan? Daar wordt niet op doorgevraagd, interesseert ook niemand die graag nog een keer uitgenodigd wil worden.

I'm glad I never look at that junk again.

They then cite a professor of medical oncology who apparently had found it necessary to send a sarcastic text message to Plasterk and make it public. How he got his knowledge is unclear, but it was hateful enough to kick Plasterk again. Of course, we know how he got his knowledge: from the NRC, of course, the quality newspaper that only writes De Waarheid.

Pauw presents it as yet another indication that there really is more to it. But once again, it shows the perverse power of the media: it's just the same article, creatively processed by someone.

The article apparently called for criminal offences (spreading insult/libel/slander). If Gideon should be able to foresee that, why not a renowned NRC journalist?

But Jeroen Pauw has even more up his sleeve.

Remkes' stab at WNL is shown. If it were then legally in order (and you see no reason to take a closer look at the entire article), then it would still not have been ethical, because that is what Remkes says. But what does Remkes know about it? This is not explained further. We do know: he has read NRC. Remkes was happy to put himself forward. The mastodons of the VVD are not happy with an alert ex-PVDA member like Plasterk. And maybe someone there already had Schoof in mind. Admittedly also an ex-PvdA member, but with a profile that is more popular with people who really want to achieve something.

It goes without saying that someone had to do the dirty work, because Dilan would have made herself impossible with her coalition partners. Now she was not to blame.

En wat concludeert Pauw dan: "U moet ook zien dat er aan uw integriteit wel op verschillende niveau's wordt getwijfeld. ook collega's van u..."

Yes Jeroen, they all read the same propaganda sheet, get that. Of course, they haven't seen Maurice de Hond's articles. He already described the whole story a week earlier maar "dat is geen MSM en staat op X dus is het desinformatie en bovendien heeft hij altijd ongelijk, kijk maar naar de Deventer moordzaak". Mensen denken dat ze door 5G worden bestuurd, maar het zijn de nationale media die de neuzen dezelfde kant op zetten. En je zou het bijna vergeten maar hotemetoten zijn ook mensen, ook als ze veel impact op grote groepen mensen hebben.

Everything you hear and read about Plasterk stems from the sentiment-mongering of NRC that assists their friends from the NPO in the fight against limiting the power of the media. That was enough for the VVD to send a hitman with Yeşilgöz and other excited talkers to express their indignation, which is then recycled in talk shows as additional evidence.

Other newspapers copied the report, copy/pasted without their own research, although the counter-information was there for the taking. It is also explainable. The government propaganda machine (press + TV/radio) is not a fan of this cabinet. The Corona period has shown how much power they have when they work together with the government. People are fooled into everything and the media gets away with it.

It may sound like I'm a Plasterk fan, but that's not the case. During this conversation you could also wonder whether he was made from the right cloth. For example, he is much too easily interrupted. Now I understand that Pauw is richer than Plasterk, but despite that you can still be a bit more confident (I actually mean bolder) in his position. But no: as soon as someone wants to say something, Plasterk shyly breaks off his sentence and listens attentively to the interruption. He is in a completely different category. I therefore think that this cabinet has more decisiveness with Schoof, who has the necessary lines behind the scenes and has also proven that he can go to any lengths to serve 'his' cabinet, even where this could be a legal problem. Someone who thinks out-of-the-box, who dares to stick out his neck. He doesn't sit and listen timidly, he has already made sure in advance what someone wants to say.

The choice of the Minister of Justice will therefore be crucial. He must have a click with Schoof so that, for example, an emergency law can be rushed through immediately, should a judge make a mistake that goes against government policy. I can see Schoof thinking about that sooner than Plasterk, who would back away in terror: Oops, are we approaching the edges of the law?

Has no one called you?

"Belde Geert Wilders u op? Ook niet na die 'belangrijke uitzending'?" (Lekker belangrijk hoor, die NPO-uitzendingen, dat vinden ze zelf en dus de kijkers ook want het wordt op tv gezegd.)

"Geert Wilders volgt alles. Belde hij u?"

"Heeft iemand u gebeld? Omtzigt, Wilders, van der Plas...?"

"Ze hebben allemaal toegekeken. Niemand sprong voor u de bres?!"

Neither Jeroen nor Suse can imagine that you are not eager to become prime minister of this cool country that walks neatly on their reins. I recognize that, when I was 20 I also thought it was an honor to join a board somewhere or to become chairman. Later you find out that it's very different: someone has to do it anyway and sometimes you just have to do it. The journalists can't imagine it.

Jeroen Pauw vraagt het voor de vijfde keer: "Maar dan toch nog: hoe verklaart u nou dat Geert Wilders niet, dat Yeşilgöz niet, en dat Caroline van der Plas niet en dat Omtzigt niet in de bres voor u zijn gesprongen?"

It's not entirely clear what he's getting at with that fiddling with phone calls. It's a question he should ask those people himself. Does he expect Plasterk to be able to look inside their heads and rattle off each of them why he/she didn't call? Pauw probably wants to convey to the viewer that Plasterk has been abandoned by his coalition partners, and then it is true what was written in the NRC.

By the way, I know why they didn't call. They had read the NRC. If that's the only information you have, how are you supposed to stand up for someone? Call him to ask if it's true? What do you think he's saying? And do you believe that? That would be a bit strange. Or do you have to be an investigative journalist yourself?

Daags erna in Oranjezomer een reprise. "Ja, als het waar is dan moet dit consequenties hebben..." En als het niet waar is, dan niet? Ook zij komen niet verder dan Sophie & Jeroen. Op Radio1 later ook weer, hetzelfde geluid. Het is treurig gesteld met onze media.

Declaration or no declaration

The talking heads Suse and Jeroen are surprised that Ronald Plasterk is not going to press charges, because that indicates that he does not think he has a case. Because he wouldn't let such a wonderful top job go through the nose of a vain guy like him if it wasn't all true, would he? Anyway. Plasterk wisely leaves politics behind, he has plenty of fun challenges with his new company, his patent and his (grand)children. Such a lawsuit consumes time, energy and money. And attracts media attention again. There are people who slide out of their chairs with anticipation at that thought alone, but there are really different views on this.

Plasterk therefore has no interest in legal hassle. Such a personal defamation case would also not do justice to the consequences of this misdeed. The formation process has been ruined, at a time when the country desperately needs a government. Democracy has been sabotaged, which seems to me to be an attack on the interests of the State. Or has that term been definitively hijacked by the incumbent power during the corona period, thanks to Minister Kuipers?

Dit is een onmiskenbare aanslag geweest op onze democratie, een verstoring van onze rechtsstaat, op basis van leugens. Dit was een journalistieke profylactische coup, indachtig de oproep van Frans Timmermans "Mensen, onze taak is helder: wij zullen niets nalaten om te voorkomen dat Wilders in dit land aan de macht komt". Er zijn ook termen aan te hangen als 'geradicaliseerd', 'anti-institutioneel' en 'desinformatie'. En Staatsbelang.

What has happened here strikes me as much more serious than a group of people in costume symbolically entering a government building.

I don't know exactly how it works legally, but a libel suit by Ronald Plasterk does not do justice to the consequences of this smear campaign, because we can speak of that. Here, the democratic process has been deliberately torpedoed on spurious grounds. If that is not a criminal offense, disrupting our political system with libel and slander, then I certainly don't understand the fuss around Gideon.

In the past, you would have said: the Public Prosecution Service should take care of this, but in the corrupt state in which this country now finds itself, I do not see it happening so quickly.

But then again, who can set that in motion, without the support of the major media and even thwarted by it? You can't expect anything from something like Villamedia, they are walking on the side of the party against which they would have to take a stand. I don't know who can or can't file a complaint. Private citizens can forget about it, they don't get a foothold at any government institution. See the cases of Pols/Engel, Maes etc. Who can represent the rule of law if the government doesn't?

• the coalition partners (including the VVD, Remkes was misled)
• the President of the House of Representatives, on behalf of the House of Representatives
• public interest (on behalf of the population, a foundation perhaps?)
• media whose reputations are tarnished by this misconduct, advocates of pluralism in the media (De Telegraaf? Together with Onhoren Nederland? The columnists of the Telegraaf? )
• a political party: FvD and BBB are the obvious ones
• The Ombudsman, perhaps? (The formation is controlled by MSM, which is improper government action. But the ombudsman also has conversations with the NOS)
• Kassa, Radar, Nieuwsuur, Factcheckers, Zembla, Pointer (just kidding)

The S of Schoof

I have repeatedly pointed out that the system is more important than the puppets. Schoof is seen as the personification of the suppressive, constitutionally violating and particularly harmful and billion-dollar corona policy. But Schoof wasn't the architect or screenwriter at all. He was asked to advise the director because it turned out to require the expertise of NCTV, after all, there was a crisis situation that required quick action.

You could say that Schoof has fulfilled his task with verve, a super civil servant, someone who is useful, a director who gets things done, regardless of the film he directs. Who takes responsibility and dares to stick his neck out.

Who knows, maybe Schoof will serve his cabinet with the dynamism he has shown before. That he will use his skills, his experience and, above all, his entire network to achieve what this cabinet wants to achieve. Eavesdropping on journalists could be an option, but you can also come up with a goat path for that together with the Minister of Justice. That would be really enjoyable because those journalists themselves have made sure that he is there instead of the always polite, courteous, decent, charming, flamboyant (because hat) Ronald Plasterk.

In the case of a functioning Democracy requires a pluriform, diverse and therefore inclusive media landscape, so that we are informed in a variety of ways, can weigh opposing views and the democratic process can do its work and so that we will be spared the next pandemic scam. And so we end up back at 'virusvaria'.