May 10, 2012

White men do run everything!

Including Essence magazine.

Or at least did, until the Great 2012 Social Media Purge caught up with the Republican white guy who was the managing editor of the best known black women's magazine. Here's the funny story from a few weeks ago from the outraged diversicrats at the Maynard Institute:
Essence magazine and its white male managing editor — whom the leading magazine for black women has emphasized had a production, not an editorial role — are parting ways, a spokeswoman told Journal-isms Friday, after right-wing material on his Facebook page was brought to the editors' attention. 
The hiring of Michael Bullerdick last July created an uproar, partly because the title of "managing editor" implied to many a major role for a white man in the editorial process of a magazine for black women. 
In his LinkedIn profile, Bullerdick lists "Edit stories for tone and style" among his duties, even though editor-in-chief Constance C.R. White insisted when he was hired, "Michael is responsible for production and operational workflow. He has no involvement in editorial content."

The announcement of Bullerdick's departure for the book division of Time Warner, the conglomerate that owns Essence, came after Journal-isms shared screen shots of Bullerdick's Facebook page taken by a reader. 
"Essence readers would be shocked to find that Bullerdick, who under the prodding of Time Inc became the first white male editor at the magazine last year, openly espouses extremist Right-wing views that run counter to what Essence has historically stood for," the Journal-isms reader wrote in an email. 
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."

32 comments:

dearieme said...

It's such a pity that Americans frown on surname jokes. "Bullerdick"!

Anonymous said...

I know laughing at titles is bad form, but here's one from the Maynard Institute "Diversity Blog"--

Three Ways 'Girls' and 'Basketball Wives' Are Scarily Similar

Who would have predicted that extending the Internet franchise to women would have resulted in such a flurry of analysis of TV dramas? OK, probably anybody who attended a coed college could have predicted it.

Anonymous said...

It is as well to hang for a sheep as for a lamb.

Being fired for Townhall.com...

Gilbert Pinfold

Simon in London said...

Clearly Racism and Sexism are A-ok if you're black & female. Or was he fired by white people?

Anonymous said...

openly espouses extremist Right-wing views

Dont get out much do they.

And thus Im guessing they would fall down dead on the spot if they ever stumbled upon isteve.

Not anonymous, usually said...

Similar to a Kinsey moment.

I recommend reading Razib Khan's and Randall Parker's differing views on internet privacy (GNXP and Parapundit, respectively).

I suspect many diversicrats and their ilk would be less enthusiastic about Alinsky-patterned gotchas, if their enemies could post selections of their over-latte-with-friends conversations. Of course, we aren't there. Yet.

Anonymous said...

You can hardly get a more forceful, Freudian male surname than "Bullerdick".

Anonymous said...

So the man gets fired because of his conservative viewpoints, which didn't affect his job performance at Essence. What a crock of sh!t. Further proof that liberals take the prize as hypocrites, liars, and pure pond scum.

Anonymous said...

Facebook has to be the stupidest thing ever. The potential downsides to being on there are huge... Well, if you're a "career" person anyway. I deleted my profile some years back and haven't missed anything.

TGGP said...

I'd never heard of the Maynard institute before. The only other times you hear that name are in reference to Keynes, the frontman of Tool and some beatnik character from Leave it to Beaver. Other than watch from the sidelines and blog I didn't notice much their proclaiming their own activities, although they do supposedly train people in web journalism or something. Their board of directors page had about half the entries with notably black looking pictures, which I think puts them ahead of the SPLC or Obama's campaign organization. Another amusing bit, they are promoting a story about a collaboration between MALDEF and NAM. NAM in that context does not stand for Non-Asian Minority but New America Media.

Anonymous said...

The Onion first noticed this a few years ago: "Man Finally Put In Charge Of Struggling Feminist Movement."

http://www.theonion.com/articles/man-finally-put-in-charge-of-struggling-feminist-m,2338/

Anonymous said...

What a retard. Think what he could have accomplished with that position if he had kept his online mouth shut. I am pissed.

peterike said...

Granted, in a sane world this situation would be laughably ridiculous, but Bullerdick was seriously naive to think he could put the things he did on his Facebook page and not face opprobrium once it got out. For god sakes, the guy works in media. He needs to be totally undercover if he harbors evil Right-wing views. My bet is he loses his job at Time Warner sooner rather than later. And he's dead in terms of future media jobs, other than at overtly Right-wing properties.

Also, I notice that more and more MSM websites are requiring Facebook for posting comments. This is a fine way of eliminating anonymity and reducing crimethink comments. I, for one, could never put my comments under my real name, so any discussion that involves Facebook is one I cannot engage in.

Laguna Beach Fogey said...

Oh well. At least we can look forward to the day when we can use similar tactics against them.

Pat Boyle said...

I feel utterly estranged from mainstream culture over pop music. I just don't get it. Tito Puente? Please.

Is it good to know who Punte was or is it bad? A normal human knows something like 5,000 names (I just made that figure up). If you fill up your head with people like Puente will you crowd out someone like Richard Feynman? Is there a price for knowing who all those celebrities are on the covers of the tabloids at the supermarket checkout lines?

Another thing that bothers me is why conservative politicians listen to all that dreadful country and western music? Huckabee and Hannity being the worst offenders. I like to think that they go home, lock the doors, pull down the shades and secretly listen to Mozart.

Maybe it's too late. In the movies a character who listens to opera is usually the serial killer.

It has been said that in the nineteenth century you could walk down the street of any town in America on a summer's day and you would hear pianos playing through every open door. Nixon played the piano as did Truman. No politician since has been brave enough to admit an interest or talent for music.

For a while there mothers were playing Mozart to their infants to boost their IQs. But they never expected those kids to listen to Mozart when they grew up. They were expected to listen to some someone like Tito Puente.

I don't think anyone would be surprised if there was a study which correlated music preferences with intelligence. I would hazard that the IQ of people who listen to rap is probably around 80.

One year for my New Year's resolution I decided to really study the late quartets of Beethoven. As it happened I didn't, anymore that I ever tried to climb El Capitan - another resolution from another year. But I did apply myself to understanding the late operas of Strauss. I figured I wasn't ready before I was forty. I was saving myself.

I can't be the only one who makes life plans around music - or art or literature or science. Yet in our democracy we only seem to accept people for high office who have low common tastes. We want a man to lead the nation, someone who can make long ranging plans. But we expect him to just stumble and slide along with everyone else reacting to top 40 fads.

Albertosaurus

Sheila said...

Townhall a right-wing site? I was introduced to it more than dozen years ago. I haven't read it in more than six; it's mainstream pabulum.

As anonymous said - as well to hang for a sheep as a lamb.

Anonymous said...

http://youtu.be/GJ-e5XjlmZA

Make The World Flat (Race and Intelligence)

Paul Mendez said...

It's such a pity that Americans frown on surname jokes. "Bullerdick"!

As soon as I saw his name, I figured he had a rough time in middle school.

Paul Mendez said...

I'd like to start a blog about nothing but people whose lives are ruined by dumb shit they post on Facebook, but there aren't enough hours in the day to keep it current....

Anonymous said...

Bullerdick, the biggest 'racist' since Bull Connors?

Anonymous said...

Wow, a whole bunch of people got fired or blacklisted for what they posted on facebook or twitter.

What should it be called? Being 'facelifted'? 'facebooked'?

Anonymous said...

Is facebook private space or public space? If private space, should people be fired for what they say or express in private?
Indeed, isn't it an invasion of privacy to spy on what someone said in the privacy of facebook?
What happens when there's telepath-book in the future where minds are socially networked telepathically? Will it be like in ZARDOZ where someone is exiled for having the wrong thoughts(even if private)?

And the Constitution says 'race, color, or creed'. Creed means belief or conviction, so shouldn't Bullerdick sue Essence for firing him for his creed?

Anonymous said...

Make fun of Al Sharpton and you're fired.
But support 'gay marriage' and you get to be prezident. Sick.

Aging hag said...

Oh, I see that everyone beat me to the "Bullerdick."

And on day two of the Travolta crisis!

Anonymous said...

ALBERTOSAURUS - YOU POSTED THAT PUENTE COMMENT TO THE WRONG THREAD!!!

Can you repost it to the correct thread?

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Jews have a ownership and entrepreneuship culture that catholics don't have...

ben tillman said...

It's such a pity that Americans frown on surname jokes. "Bullerdick"!

Huh? Where do you get that idea?

Harry Baldwin said...

Nixon played the piano as did Truman. No politician since has been brave enough to admit an interest or talent for music.

Clinton plays the saxophone and Huckabee plays the electric guitar.
Condoleezza Rice (not a politician exactly) is a professional-caliber musician. Orrin Hatch composed and sang a song for his good buddy Teddy Kennedy.

Anonymous said...

lso, I notice that more and more MSM websites are requiring Facebook for posting comments. This is a fine way of eliminating anonymity and reducing crimethink comments. I, for one, could never put my comments under my real name, so any discussion that involves Facebook is one I cannot engage in.

Glad Im not the only one concerned about that. Facebook is highly suspect, its an internet within the internet but with anonymity removed.

I do have a Facebook ID but its not my name I use.

Pat Boyle said...

Clinton plays the saxophone and Huckabee plays the electric guitar.

Clinton obviously was just joking. He was trying to be "cool". Else why the shades?

That reminds me of a movie in which James Earl Jones was shown playing the sax in a nightclub scene. He was swaying and sweating and emoting up a storm but the camera setup was faulty. His fingers were two inches off the keys. Very funny scene that.

The soft core porn movies on HBO used to always switch to saxophone music when the scene got steamy. The sax is not a normal musical instrument. It carries baggage.

I like Huckabee. I would like him to be my next door neighbor. He seems like a pleasant and decent fellow. He would probably return borrowed tools. But I can't take all that corn-pone schtick. His show is like watching Hee-Haw.

Condoleeza Rice proves my case. In the halls of the Republican Establishment she has been considered for the Veep position. They added up the positives and the negatives. But despite being black, female and competent she just can't overcome the stigma that she's a serious musician.

Albertosaurus

vinteuil said...

So, Albertosaurus, how'd you do with the late operas of Strauss?

Personally, I don't think there's any way around the unfortunate fact that RS just kind of ran out of steam after *Der Rosenkavalier* (itself one of the great monuments of Western Civilization).

Major conductors and singers keep trying to make the case for *Die Frau ohne Schatten* - and they keep failing. The sheer complexity & sophistication of Strauss's music & Hoffmansthal's text are pretty amazing - but at a certain point one needs more than that. A catchy tune, say, or a memorable bit of verse.

And, so far as I can tell, it's all down hill from there, with the possible exception of *Capriccio* - concerning which the best anybody ever seems to be able to say is that it's very, very "civilized." Which, indeed, it is.

Pat Boyle said...

I feel a little guilty about posting on this thread. I made a mistake. I was trying to comment on Tito Puente but got the wrong thread.

But in answer to the late Strauss comment - I came to marvel at late Strauss. I think the problem wasn't in Strauss but in the audiences. His late stuff was just too sophisticated for human beings - or very nearly so. I have noticed much the same in Hindemith.

I can do arithmetic in my head up to and about long division. We know that Richard Feynman - a much smarter guy - could solve almost any computational problem in his head. But no one can solve a triple integral in their head. It's simply beyond human capacity.

Music became ever more sophisticated and complex until 1928. Serious music at the edge written after that time can't find an audience. Humans are just not up to it.

The first time I saw Die Frau I thought it was just noise and rather unpleasant noise at that. When I saw it again I was transported. It was magical. I got it. But the economics of such music is not favorable. Even people who have prepared need to buy at least two tickets. People have to study and even so may not be equal to the task.

Albertosaurus