Brett Kavanaugh during his hearing in September. (Credit: YouTube/CNN/screenshot)
Palm Springs, California TV news anchor Kris Long resigned from CBS-affiliate Local 2 KESQ weeks after he posted on Facebook about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
In a statement on the KESQ website, the station said it “accepted Kris Long’s resignation, effective immediately.” The station also quoted Long as saying, “I want to thank those who have offered support and apologize again for any I may have offended. I hope to return to the news business in the future.”
Long “has been off the air since the Sept. 17 evening newscast,” according to the Desert Sun.
Jerry Upham, the station manager, told iMediaEthics by e-mail, “I can’t comment on personnel issues such as resignations, but I can tell you that Kris was on administrative leave for a couple weeks leading up to the resignation while we sorted through the situation.”
As iMediaEthics previously reported, Long apologized last month for his post in which he said in part “you are beyond dreaming if you think 17-year-old boys are not going to misbehave from time to time as they begin to attempt relationships with the opposite sex. That is just the way we animals are made!” Then he deleted the post and posted that “This is a sensitive and controversial subject and i apologize for any offense that this has caused.”
The station itself issued a statement saying Long’s post didn’t “represent the views of CBS Local 2” or its parent company, and it was “addressing this issue internally.”
iMediaEthics has written to Long via Facebook to ask for more information.
iMediaEthics has written several times about problematic social media posts or stories about Kavanaugh and the accusations against him. USA Today edited an article about Brett Kavanaugh and coaching his daughters’ basketball teams. Fox News dropped a contributor for his “reprehensible” tweets about Kavanaugh’s accuser Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. And the New York Times apologized for a Twitter poll about Ford’s testimony against Kavanaugh.
