The conservative host of a nightly TV show on a St. Louis station owned by Sinclair Broadcasting has resigned after drawing fire regarding comments he made on Twitter against a Parkland, Fla., high school student who has become a gun control activist.
Jamie Allman tweeted in late March describing how he would use "a hot poker" and assault David Hogg, according to the Riverfront Times, an alternative newsweekly in St. Louis. Hogg, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student, emerged as a leader after the shootings that killed 17 in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14.
Ronn Torossian, CEO of the PR firm 5W and Sinclair's spokesperson, told USA TODAY in an email that Allman's resignation was accepted and that his show on ABC-affiliate KDNL is canceled.
The Washington Post was first to report on Allman's resignation.
Apart from Allman, a Fox TV conservative commentator, Laura Ingraham, also faced criticism for her comments about Hogg after she said he failed to gain admittance into some of his top college choices. She later apologized after the student activist mounted an ad boycott of her program and began scoring victories.
Sinclair itself recently faced criticism after it ordered news anchors in many cities to read a warning about "fake news" on other stations, a campaign that sounded as if it was echoing the philosophy of President Trump.
The Post said advertisers started pulling their sponsorships of Allman's show after the tweet became widely known.
Hogg spoke up early after the school shooting and had even taped real-time reactions from fellow students inside barricaded classrooms during the rampage. He quickly became a target of conservative pundits, who noted darkly that his father had been an FBI agent.
Other allegations included false claims that he was part of a group of young actors who show up at the scene of shootings to go on camera, pretending to be a student. Some bloggers also questioned whether he was actually at the school at the time of the shooting, a claim dismissed by Politifact.
