Earlier today, Newstalk presenter George Hook received a handwritten letter (pictured and transcribed below) addressed personally to him.
Upon opening it, he discovered that it was a piece of hate mail, describing him as a failure as a person, businessman, husband and father. You can watch George read extracts from the letter below:
No stranger to receiving negative feedback from trolls on social media, the personal letter struck a chord with George today, and the grim message it contains has been very shocking.
After reading the letter live on air at 5pm, George spoke out to any listener who might be dealing with bullying or threatening messages:
On today’s Right Hook, George addressed the hate mail on air, and spoke to Kieran Austin, director of services for Console, about how to react and cope with harassment and vitriolic comments online and in the post.
Transcript
George,
Nobody likes you. Not even yourself.
You are a failure as a person. Bad businessman. Brutal husband and even worse father. Conned your friends in business and life.
On TV and radio, just a whinger and like to be awkward.
Reality is you are a waste of a pregnancy. An aborted foetus would have had a better impact on the world than you.
You could have helped a little if you walked off the pier when you had the opportunity.
Your wife, children and the people who knew you would have has [sic] hugely, much better lives.
(You can still do it)