He acknowledged that he has called Trump “The Orange Man” multiple times in print and on broadcast before. “I’m sure that strong supporters of the former president find that offensive,” he wrote. “And I do apologize for that, as the comment last night and other instances were not meant to offend.”
Crane said management told him he had “crossed a line.” They said his remark “demonstrated bias against Trump and the GOP, which was not recoverable,” he wrote.
He did not apologize for his actual analysis, noting only that “perhaps in my verbiage I certainly could have been a bit more PC. I would like to think part of the reason I have been able to do this for 22 years in a top 10 media market is that I call the hard balls and strikes on either side, and attempt to do so with a bit of humor, sarcasm, the occasional pun and tongue in cheek.”
Crane added: “I have worked in senior staff positions on both sides of the aisle and consider many of those folks, Democrats and Republicans, as friends and mentors… The ego is bruised, and I am a bit down…but not out.”
Before he worked at WSB-TV and WSB radio, he provided political analysis for 11Alive from 2000 to 2006. He also writes a syndicated news column, “One Man’s Opinion,” that is seen in many small local papers in metro Atlanta.
