ST. LOUISย โ A conservative commentator who sent a tweet saying he would use โa hot pokerโ to sexually assault an outspoken 17-year-old survivor of the Florida high school shooting has resigned from a St. Louis TV station and been taken off the radio after several advertisers withdrew from his shows.
KDNL-TV accepted Jamie Allmanโs resignation and canceled โThe Allman Report,โ according to a brief statement from Ronn Torossian, a spokesman for the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which operates the TV station. Before the showโs launch in January 2015, KDNL-TV touted it as a nontraditional newscast with a conservative spin.
Allmanโs radio show on KFTK-FM has been taken off the air while the company โlooks into the matter,โ said Esther-Mireya Tejeda, a spokeswoman for Entercom, which began operating the station last month.
Allman hasnโt responded to messages from the Associated Press seeking comment.
Several businesses pulled advertising from Allmanโs shows after he sent the March 26 tweet targeting David Hogg, who has strongly advocated for stricter gun control since 17 people were killed in the Feb. 14 mass shooting at his school in Parkland, Florida.
Allmanโs Twitter account was โlockedโ shortly after he sent the tweet, restricting access to his account, but a screenshot of it has been widely circulated on social media.
Hoggโs willingness to take on the gun-control cause has made him a target for some conservatives. Fox News Channelโs Laura Ingraham took a weekโs leave after apologizing via social media for her tweet that Hogg had โwhinedโ about not getting in to some colleges.
Ingraham hasnโt discussed that episode specifically but promised upcoming stories about conservatives who she says are fighting attempts to silence them. Hogg, meanwhile, said itโs โtime to love thy neighbor, not mudsling at children.โ Their social media spat came to symbolize the debate over how youthful advocates for gun safety should be treated by political opponents. Another student, Emma Gonzalez, has been falsely depicted in a doctored photo tearing up the Constitution.
In Missouri, state Rep. Stacey Newman, a Democrat from Richmond Heights, led calls for a boycott by Allmanโs sponsors after he sent his tweet.
โWeโve had people all over Missouri (and) all over the country weighing in on this … itโs heartwarming to know that tons of people throughout the state understand this is not acceptable,โ Newman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Monday. โEven though we hadnโt asked for his removal or resignation, (Sinclair) took it upon themselves. People know where the line is.โ
Sinclair is a conservative-leaning company that owns nearly 200 local TV stations, making it one of the largest such companies in the U.S.
President Donald Trump last week defended the company after a video showing dozens of Sinclair news anchors reading a script expressing concern about โfake storiesโ and โone-sided news stories plaguing the countryโ appeared on TV news reports and circulated online. Trump said rival TV stations were merely โworried about the competition and quality of Sinclair Broadcast.โ
Sinclair also has pushed for regulation of the broadcast industry to be eased and is trying to buy Tribune Media in a move that would dramatically increase the companyโs reach.
Allman also served a six-month stint in 2004 and 2005 as chief spokesman for then-St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke and executive director of communications for the archdiocese. Archdiocese spokesman Gabe Jones didnโt immediately respond to a phone call and email message seeking comment.
