ABSTRACT
When French President Jacques Chirac came to visit the Queen and Prime Minister of the Netherlands in early 2000, he turned down all requests for advance interviews. Dutch television news got ‘no’ for an answer, current affairs programmes begged in vain and the political editors of all national newspapers received only a short reply from the President's information office: terribly sorry, but no interviews. There was one exception, however: the TV Show of the public broadcasting station TROS, hosted by Ivo Niehe, the Dutch equivalent of David Letterman. His shows are usually filled with entertainment stars or (non-political) people in the news. The format is that of a friendly chat, with exchanges which shed light on the human side of the interviewee and eschew any confrontational approach. Although hardly a political programme, it was an ideal platform for the French President to say what he wanted to say and to keep silent about any hot potato that he apparently feared all the other interview applicants were dying to chew on – and to say it with a smile, unchallenged by the Jeremy Paxmans of the Lowlands.
