Kris Long has resigned from Local 2

Kris Long, the longtime nightside anchor of Local 2 in Palm Springs, resigned from the station on Friday. The resignation came nearly three weeks after he posted on Facebook defending Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Gulf California Broadcast Company General Manager Jerry Upham wrote that he had accepted Long’s resignation “effective immediately,” in a statement posted on KESQ’s website.

“Kris Long has been an integral part of this company’s news organization and we’d like to thank him for his many years of service,” wrote Upham.

Long had posted about Kavanaugh on September 17, stating 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!”

Long had not been on the air since that night and the station, other than a brief statement the following night, had been silent about what was going on.

Long is a 40 plus year veteran of broadcast journalism who worked as a reporter and anchor in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Chicago before joining Local 2 in 2005.   He won three local Emmys for his reporting work in Chicago and, in 2016, Long won a local Emmy for his coverage of the Salton Sea.

“I want to thank those who have offered support and apologize again for any I may have offended,” Long said in the statement. “I hope to return to the news business in the future.”