A chat room at the center of Wheel of Fortune announcer Jim Thornton’s firing is attempting to clarify its intended use.
Sony Pictures Television confirmed to Us on Friday, September 4, that Thornton, 61, had been fired “effectively immediately” from his longtime position “following a thorough investigation.” Thornton had been a staple on the program for 25 years
The news came after TMZ published photos on Thursday, September 3, showing Thornton browsing what the outlet described as a “chat room for pedophiles” on his laptop during a flight from Charlotte to Los Angeles in May.
A fellow passenger reported seeing the contents of Thornton’s screen to a flight attendant, and he was questioned by authorities and later allowed to leave upon disembarking the plane. He has not been arrested or charged in connection with the incident.
In a statement on its website, LifeLine, the chat room accessed by Thornton, said, “LifeLine operates a support chat room for people attracted to children and adolescents. We have strict rules against any kind of illicit behavior, including the sharing of criminalized images. Those who violate the rules are swiftly banned and their messages removed as soon as possible.”
“Many commentators ask why a place like LifeLine even exists. It exists because most people attracted to minors are fully capable of behaving responsibly, yet extremely distressed by the stigmatization of their feelings,” the statement continued. “They need a place to talk, ensuring better mental health, leading to more positive outcomes for themselves and their local communities.”
The website noted that it allows users to send and receive “messages that the public may consider ‘offensive’ so long as they do not cross legal boundaries or put anyone at risk of harm,” noting that “via this methodology, we have successfully diverted users from making bad decisions that would have endangered themselves or others.”
“Unfortunately, there is no safe way for minor-attracted people to access professional support in the majority of cases. There is a severe risk of being reported to authorities simply for disclosing one’s feelings,” the statement continued. “Who would seek therapy under the very real threat of being outed and shunned as a ‘pedophile?’ The metaphorical lynching of the celebrity who allegedly visited our chat illustrates this clearly.”
“LifeLine exists precisely because the world is so incredibly hateful and punitive that minor-attracted people have no other means of support,” the statement said.
Thornton’s attorney, Allison Hart, told Page Six in a statement last Thursday that her client had accessed the website by mistake. However, TMZ reported that Thornton “was in the [chat] room for at least 57 minutes.”
“My client has become active in suicide-prevention advocacy since losing a close family member to suicide two years ago, and he has spent time visiting chat rooms offering support to individuals suffering from suicidal ideation,” Thornton’s attorney said. “One of the sites my client has visited is 988lifeline.org, and its chat forum chat.988lifeline.org. … Through an acquaintance in the suicide prevention space, my client was misdirected to a forum with a similar URL … which my client understood to be a forum offering suicide prevention support similar to 988lifeline.org and chat.988lifeline.org.”
“When my client understood what the website was about, he left the page and has not visited since,” Hart claimed in her statement. “The website … itself is not unlawful, there is no unlawful child pornography or other pedophilic content, and my client has never viewed, downloaded or consumed any child pornography, whether on that commercial flight in May or at any other time.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.