St. Louis TV commentator resigns after threatening David Hogg

A conservative commentator for a St. Louis television station owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group resigned 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, 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,” Allman added. (Allman has since made his Twitter account private.)

An outside spokesman for Sinclair confirmed that Allman had ended his relationship with the station, KDNL, an ABC affiliate.

“We have accepted Mr. Allman’s resignation and his show has been canceled,” Ronn Torossian, the spokesman, said by email.

Torossian, chief executive of the public relations firm 5WPR, would not say when Allman tendered the resignation, which was reported by other publications Monday. The future of a radio show Allman hosts is uncertain as the station that airs it conducts an investigation.

The controversy comes as Sinclair, the country’s largest broadcaster, faces accusations of advancing a right-leaning agenda, fueled 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 $3.9 billion blockbuster merger with Tribune Media.

While Allman’s tweet was posted more than two weeks ago, it had become the focus of a growing and ultimately successful 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 Late last week, a health care provider, a real estate company and a steakhouse all announced that they had withdrawn from the program.

That campaign was reminiscent of a similar and successful effort aimed at Fox News host Laura Ingraham after she accused Hogg, a high school senior, of complaining about being rejected from some colleges.

Hogg weighed in on the controversy over Allman’s comment on Twitter on Monday night, suggesting that he found it to be a distraction from the debate over gun violence.

The future of Allman’s regular radio show, “Allman in the Morning,” is unclear. He has been taken off the air, pending an investigation, according to Entercom Communications, which only two months ago bought KFTK-FM, the station on which his show airs.

A Twitter account for Allman’s television show was taken down Tuesday and his personal account is now private, meaning only those he approves can read what he shares on the social network.

Allman could not be reached for comment.