Why are debates on television never debates? – Parool.nl

27-02-15 17:37 pm – Source: Het Parool

Kitchen Teun. © Het Parool

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Every word, every joke, every frown and each hand gesture has rehearsed

That was what eh, that lijsttrekkersdebat for the Senate. The friendly presenter College Tour and strict lady with the curls of the Hague politics tasted the kidneys – as they call it anyway at Parliament Buildings? – The party leaders of the Senate.

That in itself is a little strange, because they really do hard not to put on the list. We vote because nothing like them. We vote, well, you know yourself, the Provincial Council, who will vote again in the Senate. So that people were arguing, so more about that, without them somewhere have to convince us.

Or as Bart Nijman GeenStijl summed it up on Twitter: “Senators, where you can not vote in 20 seconds giving views on complex issues where they do not move.” So it just was.

Those twenty seconds were potsierlijkste the whole meeting. A grotesque of which we do encounter more often in political debates on television. There was submitted a complicated proposition to the party leaders, for example about immigration or Islam or green energy, then such party leader was there in twenty seconds flux a tune about parting. You sometimes saw gasping for breath, their brains hurt what phrases they already had learned by heart, and eventually to spoon onto the prepared text

speeches So passed away at school often:. More concerned of outside to find scholarly texts than to convince the class with words. Now it was just as painful to watch as it was then. If the maximum talk time of twenty seconds was exceeded, sounded to sound: boeoeh! Time to stop!

And say damn, about Tineke Strik GroenLinks knew in that time not to put all the nuances of migration apart! Tasty than for someone noted, teaches this course at the university! Would they still think the Senate is a chambre de reflexion, where bills that the House passed another quiet and with intelligence on their merits can be assessed? Come say twenty seconds you can get

Why debates never debates.? Why always those gimmicks of twenty seconds and all those supposedly sharp and witty one-liners by spin doctors invented? Why do I never listen to what anyone says another, yes even think about it, and only then respond? Why is it fair that the boring meaningless speaker will talk as much as the sharp smart?

It’s all fear. Fear of the unpredictable. Every word, every joke, every frown and each hand gesture is rehearsed and all topics are discussed over and over again for the debate organization. All surprises are eliminated. Debate is hardly moderated either.

Political debates on Dutch television are mandatory corset.

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(By: Teun Kitchen).