What is going on with RTL News?

I was in the car when a push notification popped up on my mobile. Luckily, I had a red light so I could take in what world tragedy had occurred that RTL News wanted to inform me about adequately and accurately. Marco and Leontine Borsato officially separated.

Of course, I was in shock and saddened, because if Marco and Leontine can't make it together, who can in this angry world, but I did wonder if I thought it was RTL News's job to inform me about it. That doesn't mean I don't want to know, but it seemed to me more something for the colleagues at a booth to the left, namely RTL Boulevard. Exactly the booth where Marco and Leontine themselves had sent their statement. They also found that a more suitable platform.

Given the gravity of the news (I was a bit sad about it for a few days), I decided not to grumble about it further. Until the next message was discussed. RTLZ headlined: ‘This will cost Marco Borsato the divorce.’ I quickly checked the URL in my Google bar. Had I landed on the gossip section of NU.nl or on the site of the gossip magazine Story? No, RTL Z.

Yesterday, another message knocked against the inside of my device. I had to, would, and wanted to know this. Okay, I admit that my eager and hungry self has let the RTL News app know that I want to know ‘anything Meghan and Harry.’ But that they also meant ‘anything’ and really ‘anything’ Harry and Meghan, I could not have anticipated. Because what news was shared with me through this channel? That Harry ‘according to insiders’ was not having a good time there in Canada. That he was looking at his phone a lot and was texting more than ever with his British friends.

I understand that it is difficult to define what ‘news’ is and what is not. And of course, there are variations in gravity and lightness, it’s all about the right mix. Leave the gossip and backbiting to others or start an RTL News light, but I really find this a bit beneath your standing. Noblesse oblige, after all.

And it is true that I want to know everything, but in an ideal world, through different channels.