Walmart yanks “offensive, inflammatory product" from online marketplace

Walmart has pulled a line of controversial t-shirts after receiving a letter from the Radio Television Digital News Association. The t-shirts were being offered by a third party seller on the retailer’s online marketplace. They read: "Rope. Tree. Journalist. SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED."

Walmart told the Star Tribune: "This item clearly violates our policy. We removed it as soon as it was brought to our attention, and are conducting a thorough review of the seller's assortment." The third party, Teespring, allows individuals to post shirt designs. The company, which earlier this year was asked to remove a “rainbow swastika” t-shirt from its site, commented: “As soon as we were alerted to this content promoting violence against journalists we removed the content, added this content to our automated scanning systems, and kicked off a human sweep of the site to find and remove any similar content."

Radio Television Digital News Association, Executive Director, Dan Shelley, said: "We are grateful for Walmart's swift action, but dismayed that it, and anyone else selling the shirt, would offer such an offensive and inflammatory product."