A conservative US commentator has lost his television and radio shows after saying on Twitter that he was preparing to use a “hot poker” to assault a survivor of the Parkland, Florida school shooting.
In the crude tweet, Jamie Allman, the commentator from the St Louis area, said that he was “hanging out getting ready” to assault David Hogg, one of the outspoken survivors of the shooting in which 17 people were killed.
“Busy working; preparing,” Mr Allman added. (Mr Allman has since made his Twitter account private.)
David Hogg, a student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, speaking at a March For Our Lives rally. Source: AAP
Mr Allman had shows on KDNL, an ABC-affiliated television station owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and KFTK-FM, a radio station owned by Entercom Communications.
“We have accepted Mr Allman’s resignation and his show has been cancelled,” Ronn Torossian, an outside spokesman for Sinclair, said by email.
A spokeswoman for Entercom said that the broadcaster and Mr Allman had parted ways. He had been with the radio station for about 12 years, she said.
Mr Torossian, the chief executive of the public relations firm 5WPR, would not say when Mr Allman tendered his resignation, which was reported by other publications on Monday.
Mr Allman’s relationship with the radio station was severed on Tuesday.
The controversy comes as Sinclair, the country’s largest broadcaster, faces accusations of advancing a right-leaning agenda, fuelled recently by widely shared videos of anchors at dozens of stations reciting the same script about bias in the media.
Those videos also reignited a debate over Sinclair’s size and its prolonged battle to complete a $US3.9 billion blockbuster merger with Tribune Media.
Mr Allman’s tweet, which was posted more than two weeks ago, became the focus of a campaign to pressure advertisers to drop his show, “The Allman Report.”
Late last week, a health care provider, a real estate company and a steakhouse announced that they had withdrawn from the program.
That campaign was reminiscent of a similar and successful effort aimed at the Fox News host Laura Ingraham after she accused Mr Hogg, a high school senior, of complaining about being rejected from some colleges.
Mr Hogg weighed in on the controversy over Mr Allman’s comment on Twitter on Monday night, suggesting that he found it to be a distraction from the debate over gun violence.
A Twitter account for Mr Allman’s television show was taken down on Tuesday and his personal account is now private, meaning only those he approves can read what he shares on the social network.
Mr Allman could not be reached for comment.
