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Just a bit more about Merel Ek

And why I am team Merel

just about merel ek

Maybe you missed it because you were Netflixing (no offense, I wrote yesterday that Christian Horner talks to Max Verstappen during the race while it turns out to be his engineer, I just finished writing penalty rules) but something remarkable has happened with Merel Ek. Let me take you through it in five steps.

Merel Ek, that is...
That nice parliamentary reporter who also regularly joins VI. She is attractive, skilled, has humor, and is not intimidated by the VI tribunal.

Okay, and what happened then?
She critically questioned FvD member Gideon van Meijeren (and found it good). It went like this: Thierry Baudet says he agrees with conspiracy theorist Icke who claims that Frank Sinatra, Queen Elizabeth, the Pope, and Stalin were or are reptiles. With a raised eyebrow in response, Baudet said that ‘reptiles’ is a word that has multiple meanings.

Okay, and what does that have to do with Merel Ek and Gideon van Meijeren?
Well, Johan Derksen said in VI that Baudet should be liquidated. Not very uplifting indeed, but hey, Johan Derksen. Merel Ek later asked Van Meijeren if he knew that the word ‘liquideren’ also has multiple meanings. It can also mean ‘settling accounts’ or ‘winding up’. Merel actually gave Van Meijeren a taste of his own medicine. And she also defended Johan Derksen a bit. Well, that cost her dearly.

Why?
Merel took one meaning of ‘liquideren’ when you look it up online in the Dikke Van Dale, but did not use the paper version of the dictionary. And in that paper version, the meaning that Merel presented to Gideon van Meijeren was not included.

And then Van Meijeren was angry?
Furious. He searched for Merel with a running camera in her editorial office. Unannounced. When she, very sportively, offered to talk but without a camera, Van Meijeren said the camera was off, but he continued filming. Merel admitted her ‘mistake’ and said that Wilfred Genee had already acknowledged it in the broadcast.

And then it was over?
No way. Then Van Meijeren went to edit the material and made a cover with the title ‘Sewer Rats’. And now the entire FvD following is attacking Merel Ek and she is being called everything despicable and terrible on Twitter.

And I find that terrible for Merel, because she was just doing her job. With an open visor in the journalistic arena where an FvD member was questioned at an appropriate moment. His reaction to secretly film a journalist at an unexpected moment and to label her as a sewer rat... I haven't often agreed with Mark Rutte lately, but in this case, I want to call this a low point.

What I wish for Merel? Just a lot of Netflix, a thick duvet, a kilo of seasalt caramel chocolate, and waking up in a week, straightening her shoulders, and just thinking that she has made TV history.

Image credits: Today Inside video