More details regarding the suspension of “Wheel of Fortune” announcer Jim Thornton are emerging: According to TMZ, the website has received photos from an American Airlines passenger who says they saw Thornton’s laptop opened on a “disturbing chat room” that appeared to be “images and texts that made it appear it was a chat room for pedophiles.”
TMZ included several photos that the passenger supposedly took of Thornton’s screens, which include comments and texts that suggest inappropriate behavior toward minors, but those photos have not been authenticated.
The alleged incident that led to the suspension apparently took place on an American Airlines flight in May. The passenger told TMZ that they informed a flight attendant about the chat room usage, and that authorities questioned Thornton at LAX when his flight landed. He was then given permission to leave, the website said.
Another article with pics https://www.tmz.com/2026/09/03/jim-thornton-chatroom-messages-that-led-to-airport-detainment/
HarryDubois666
“detective what did you get yourself into”
It looks like a TOR onion site?
The chat is a strange interface. No side panels or buttons. And very convenient for TMZ the font is large, bold and high contrast colors.
The interface looks like IRC to me. The domain is lifeline dot chat, it’s not an onion site.
Which I assume is what his lawyer’s story about “offering support” is referring to. Wouldn’t be surprised if the whole site is just couched in plausible deniability for exactly this scenario though.
He is def using TOR browser, you can see the status bar icon:
and to the left of location bar, the “tor circuit” icon. The photo is too low res to read the text, maybe a better version exists, so I thought it might be a tor URL. But no, he is just using TOR for clearnet site. Can’t wait to hear about how many other half assed opsec this guy was using.
But you are correct, I went to that URL and they have a statement up on the front page to address the increased traffic. (Why the fuck was the URL not obscured in the press? This is basically a promo for this site. It should be embargoed.) On the basis of all the statements, denials, suspensions and such, I am going to assume the chat is a legit, IRC web proxy or something, without testing it out.
I clicked one of the pages listed on “links” and I think I get the idea from the forums headings that this is not a “crisis support line”. Here is the only item I opened, as I correctly guessed it would be as dark as an average reddit posts. The others, give a worse impression from the subject lines.
CW: Louis CK
There you have it. Real deal pedophiles find Louis CK an inspiration because (I assume) of how he still has a career.
No Louis CK was viewed in the making of this comment.
Yeah, obviously a way to vet people for them to get invited into less public-facing spaces. I wonder if his lawyer actually looked at the website before creating the statement, because if she had taken the 30 second tour I did, I don’t think admitting to being a user in any capacity would have been on the table. The statement on the website states its purpose as “a support chat room for people attracted to children and adolescents.” and over several paragraphs there are no mentions of “allies”. they are certainly not interested in allowing this celeb to distance himself from them.