A caller has gone viral after he rang up ABC Drive, with Rafael Epstein, and vented about how the ABC needs to stop using its COVID-19 slogan, “we are all in this together.”
The Victorian caller, who is only known by his first name Mark, called up the radio station on Thursday to put the station on blast.
It is worth noting Melbourne is in its fifth lockdown due to the pandemic and the ABS has reported record highs in unemployment.
Mark said: “I keep hearing on the ABC “we’re all in this together.” We are not. We’re not in this together.
“The only time I actually would believe that is when a politician or member of the media says: I’ll give half my salary to someone who just lost their house, but we’re never going to hear that are we?
“Please tell everyone in the ABC and whoever else to stop saying it. There’s enough stress, I live in my bloody car now.
“I’ve lost everything.”
Epstein intervened and lowered Mark’s volume, he then tried to calm the caller down.
Epstein said: “I can hear how angry you are, and you are allowed to be angry.
“No doubt the anger is real. I try to say often the burden is not born equally.”
Ultimately the call ended and Epstein then tried to move on with his radio show. However, the drive show was flooded with callers and comments asking after Mark.
Epstein said: “A ton of you are expressing concern about Mark. I don’t have a way of contacting Mark. I’m not going to apologise for fading Mark out at that point.
“That’s my job, to work out whether someone is appropriate and safe to go to air.
“Some of you are wanting to put money in his bank account, if Mark wants to call back I’m happy to have him on the radio, but I made that call, I’ll stand by it and I’d do it again.”
