Pic: A journalist captures footage at a crime scene (credit: Pixabay)

US retailer Wal-Mart has removed a shirt from its online store, after complaints from journalists’ unions alleged it incited violence against members of the press, reports James Middleton

A t-shirt featuring the words “rope, tree, journalist: some assembly required” has been pulled from sale by the US retailer Walmart following an outcry from American journalists’ unions.

The shirt, which has been available on Walmart-associated Teespring since at least the summer of 2016, was designed by a retired serviceman in the US Navy according to The Daily Beast. Executive Director of the Radio Television Digital News Association, Dan Shelley, said that Walmart removed the item from sale within five hours of their initial complaint.

“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.”

From Trump rally in Minnesota today, via @ReutersPolitics pic.twitter.com/a7CdYT1UCi

— Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep) November 6, 2016

Reuters photographers spotted similar shirts being worn at a rally to gather support for then-candidate Trump in the summer of 2016. There was a flurry of discussion regarding Trump’s conduct toward members of the media in the aftermath of this event, with the shirts being pulled from sale by Walmart. That this same sequence of events has occurred again, not quite eighteen months later, is likely to raise questions concerning the retailer’s practices.