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Benny Johnson (journalist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Benny Arthur Johnson (born May 27, 1987) is an American political columnist, currently serving as chief creative officer at conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA. Johnson first rose to prominence as an editor at BuzzFeed, until it was revealed that many of his published articles were plagiarized and he was fired.
Early life and education
Johnson grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and attended the University of Iowa. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in organic chemistry and developmental psychology in 2009.
Career
In 2010, Johnson began contributing opinion pieces to the opinion website Breitbart. In 2011 he was hired as a full-time worker for Glenn Beck's The Blaze, a conservative media website. In 2012, Johnson became an editor at BuzzFeed.
In July 2014, BuzzFeed found 41 instances of plagiarism in Johnson's writings, comprising almost ten percent of his work. He was subsequently fired from BuzzFeed and apologized for the plagiarism. A few weeks later, he became digital director at National Review Online.
In 2015, a few months after he was hired by National Review, he joined the Independent Journal Review (IJR) as the creative content director. Later that year, IJR staffers accused Johnson of plagiarizing an article about then-House Republican Conference chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers. In 2017, Johnson was suspended by the IJR after Johnson's involvement in an article which asserted that Judge Derrick Watson's partial blocking of Executive Order 13780 was connected to former President Barack Obama's visit to Hawaii. Johnson had been warned that the IJR could potentially be promoting a conspiracy theory, but assigned the story anyway. Later that year, Johnson was demoted for violating IJR's company ethics; Business Insider reported that Johnson had been verbally abusive and driven numerous staffers away from the IJR due to his management style. Johnson and Independent Journal Review's relationship was terminated in October 2017.
Johnson joined The Daily Caller in November 2017. |