Essence Fires White Male Managing Editor
(Photo: Essence Magazine)
Michael Bullerdick, the white male hired last summer as Essence magazine’s managing editor, has been fired.
A spokeswoman made the announcement Friday after right-wing material from the journalist’s Facebook page was brought to editors’ attention by screenshots captured by a reader and shared on Journal-isms, a site that writes about minorities in the media.
Writes Journal-isms:
"In one screen shot, an April 10 posting is headlined, "No Voter Fraud, Mr. Attorney General?" touting a video by James O'Keefe, the conservative activist who worked with right-wing trickster Andrew Breitbart. The same day, Bullerdick shared a photo illustration of Al Sharpton headlined, "MSNBC Race Pimp." Bullerdick also recommends material from the conservative magazine Human Events and the right-wing website townhall.com, from which Bullerdick posted "the Frequent Bomber Program," an article about 1960s radical Bill Ayers. Bullerdick wrote, "Obama's mentor and friend."
A spokesperson later told the site that Bullerdick had accepted a position in another division in Time Inc.
Bullerdick’s hiring last July caused a national uproar as readers were concerned a white managing editor would not convey the voices of Black women for a Black women magazine.
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