Essence Magazine Editor Reassigned for Supporting Project Veritas on Facebook

An editor at Essence Magazine has been forced to leave the publication after readers complained about posts on his Facebook page that showed support for Project Veritas. From TheRoot.com:

“Michael 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…”

This kind of behavior by both the magazine’s publisher and its readers sets a very disturbing precedent. Since when do Americans have to face retribution at work for simply expressing controversial political beliefs on their own time?

Michael Bullerdick expressed his personal opinions about voter fraud, which Project Veritas has shown to be a very serious problem across America, on his personal Facebook page. For that he was called “extremist” and punished by his employer. Yet Time Warner and Essence Magazine are the ones that collaborated to chill free speech and silence political dissent through the invasion of an employee’s privacy.

Who is really the “extremist” in this story?