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Walmart has removed a controversial T-shirt with a simple message — "Rope. Tree. Journalist. SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED" — from its website, after the Radio Television Digital News Association sent the largest retailer in the U.S. a note flagging the shirt's message.

, the shirt was being sold by Walmart with a company called Teespring acting as a third-party seller. The retailer removed the shirt within one day of being notified.

A Walmart spokesperson says the shirt "clearly violates our policy," adding that the company is reviewing all of the products it sells from Teespring.

The shirt first rose to prominence a year ago, when a Reuters photographer snapped an image of a man wearing it at a gathering of Trump supporters two days before the November election.

https://twitter.com/ReutersZengerle/status/795399310062010368

That photo followed multiple reports of journalists being harassed or assaulted while on the campaign trail in 2016; it came months before 

 in which he called media outlets such as The New York Times and CNN "the enemy of the American people."

 that the T-shirt had been removed from the Teespring site after the Reuters photo went viral. But as recently as last week, the site was offering the shirt for $22.95 — with the promise that it would arrive by Christmas Eve, according to 

It was the shirt's appearance on Walmart's website that prompted RTNDA to send a letter to the retail giant, saying that the shirt could inflame passions and encourage violence.

In his email to Walmart, RTNDA's executive director, Dan Shelley wrote:

Shelley also said that while RTNDA is "a fierce proponent of the First Amendment that is politically nonpartisan" and that Walmart is within its legal rights to sell the T-shirt, "that doesn't mean it is the right thing to do."

RTNDA says that hours after Shelley sent his note, a member of Walmart's "Executive Escalations" team replied, "We have forwarded this to the appropriate team to remove it." The note also thanked Shelley for his feedback.

The shirt has also been taken down from the Teespring site. When we looked at its page on Thursday, it had been 

 saying that the shirt "is no longer available due to content issues."

A message to Teespring seeking comment was not immediately returned.

It's not the first item to be taken down by Teespring. 

, it said that it had removed "a number of designs ... that included a swastika, a hate symbol that we do not allow on Teespring."

The site added that it "does not support or allow hate speech on our platform," providing a link to its 

Social Issues

The T-shirt's message said, "Rope. Tree. Journalist." The third-party seller who was offering it through Walmart had promised that it would arrive by Christmas Eve.

Walmart pulls T-shirts that suggest lynching journalists

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