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When Wheel of Fortune suspended longtime announcer Jim Thornton, people wanted to know why.
There were unspecified allegations, but it didn’t seem like he’d gotten into any legal trouble.
Now, we know why he’s on suspension — with his role getting recast.
A disturbing chatroom appears to be at the center of this incident, and it got Thornton questioned by police.
Why did ‘Wheel of Fortune’ suspend Jim Thornton?
Wheel of Fortune announcer Jim Thornton was on an American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Los Angeles.
During the flight, a passenger snooped on his laptop — even taking photographs of a disturbing chatroom.
The passenger spoke to TMZ and even provided images of lines of text.
The vast majority of what we see are discussing poison oak, Golden Corral, the Mile High Club, and more.
But other lines make it appear that Thornton was, for whatever reason, in a chatroom for pedophiles.
One of the messages referred to spotting a “couple of cute boys and a hot little girl.”
While people of many ages might use “boys” and “girl” to refer to people their own ages, “little girl” almost always refers to a child, and no adult should be referring to her as “hot.”
Though the “all-you-can-eat Boyfett” pun might make sense while mentioning an unfortunate visit to Golden Corral, the previous context makes it uncomfortable at best.
(We should note that, from TMZ‘s photos, it appears that other members of the chatroom largely ignored the comments that apparently referred to children at the restaurant.)
A couple of times, amidst discussion of people who’ve gotten into legal trouble for having child sex-abuse material (CSAM) on their electronic devices out in public, members of the chat referred to “CP.” The passenger believed that this referred to “child porn,” an unfortunately casual reference to CSAM.
There is no evidence of any actual crime, but …
In addition to taking photos of the chat, the passenger notified a flight attendant and shared these photos.
The captain then notified authorities. When the plane landed at LAX, law enforcement questioned Jim Thornton.
However, barring any evidence that he had committed any actual crime, he was free to leave. Clearly, word got back to his workplace, and thus the suspension. (Wheel of Fortune is also scrubbing all mention of him, editing out his voice and even deleting old social media posts about his birthday.)
It is unclear if he actually participated in the chat. No part of the chat that appears in TMZ‘s photos contained any illegal material, and the chatroom itself appears to be a support group for adults experiencing pedophilic urges.
Thornton’s attorney told TMZ that her client was sent the link, which shares a very similar name and url to suicide prevention chats (apparently a passion project of the announcer’s), by mistake, and that he left the chat once he realized what it was. He was reportedly in the chat for less than one hour.
As we mentioned, there is no evidence that Thornton has done anything illegal — on the flight or at any other point.
Even if he was in that chatroom on purpose and for the same reason as others, that is also not a crime. Even some of the lines of the chat acknowledge that free speech allows people to communicate distressing or disgusting ideas without it being a violation of the law.
People having thoughts, fantasies, and personal struggles is not a crime — only when they create victims or perpetuate abuse, such as by sexually abusing a child or acquiring or sharing CSAM do they cross that legal boundary.
Though it is not a crime, this entire matter is deeply upsetting. And it is unclear whether Wheel of Fortune will permanently recast the role or allow him to return after conducting an internal investigation.
Even if he was only in the chat by accident, as his attorney has claimed, this is unfortunately a moment of bad publicity for the show. A lot of people struggle to separate predators from those who harbor abhorrent thoughts.
Our guess is that Wheel of Fortune will offer Thornton a generous severance so that they can part on good terms. It’s probably not fair, but it’s arguably the best outcome for everyone involved.