Benny Johnson (columnist)

Benny Johnson (born May 27, 1986)^[4] is an American political commentator^[5] and YouTuber.^[6] He has contributed to several conservative and right-wing media outlets such as Breitbart News, TheBlaze, National Review, and The Daily Caller.

Benny Johnson
Johnson in 2021
Born	(1986-05-27) May 27, 1986 (age 39) Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S.[1]
Alma mater	University of Iowa[2]
Occupation	Columnist
Spouse	Katelyn Rieley
Children	4
YouTube information
Channel	Benny Johnson
Years active	2020–present
Genres	Political commentary roasting
Subscribers	5.48 million[3]
Views	4.01 billion[3]
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 1,000,000 subscribers
Last updated: December 29, 2024

Johnson was briefly associated with BuzzFeed but was fired due to several instances of plagiarism, where he used text from sources such as Yahoo Answers and Wikipedia without giving due credit.^[7] Johnson has also worked for Turning Point USA and hosted for Newsmax TV.

Career

In 2010, Johnson began contributing opinion pieces to the far-right website Breitbart. From 2011 to 2012, Johnson was a full-time worker for conservative website TheBlaze, founded by Glenn Beck.^[8] From 2012 to 2014, Johnson was a staff writer at BuzzFeed, until he was fired for plagiarism.^[9]

Johnson speaking at the 2014 International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington, D.C.

In September 2014, Johnson became digital director at National Review (NR). In 2015, Johnson left NR to join the Independent Journal Review (IJR) as a creative content contributor.^[10] A month after his relationship with the IJR was terminated in October 2017,^[11] Johnson joined The Daily Caller.^[12][13][14]

In 2019, he became a chief creative officer at Turning Point USA.^[15] In 2020, Johnson was a host on Newsmax TV.^[16][17] Johnson runs three YouTube channels: "Benny Johnson", "Benny On The Block" and "Benny Brews".^[18] Johnson also hosts a podcast called "The Benny Show". His main YouTube channel, titled "Benny Johnson", has amassed 4.08 million subscribers and 3.8 billion views as of May 2025.^[18]

Controversies

In July 2014, Johnson was suspended from BuzzFeed when an online investigation exposed plagiarism in his posts. His writings "periodically lifted text from a variety of sources", including Yahoo Answers, Wikipedia, and U.S. News & World Report, "all without credit".^[7][19] The plagiarized work comprised almost 10 percent of his work; he was subsequently fired from BuzzFeed and apologized for the plagiarism.^[7]

In March 2017, IJR staffers accused Johnson of plagiarizing an article about then-House Republican Conference chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers.^[20] Later in the same month Johnson was suspended by the IJR after his 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.^[20][21]

Again in March 2017, Johnson was reported to have been verbally abusive and driven numerous staffers away from the IJR due to his management style;^[21] he was subsequently demoted.^[11]

In August 2017, Johnson wrote an article containing the most controversial tweets of what he thought was the Boston antifa Twitter account, but it was actually a fake account intended to lampoon antifa. Initially an editorial note was added, and the article was later removed.^[22][23][24]

In April 2022, The Verge published an investigation on Arsenal Media, a conservative boutique co-founded by Johnson. Former employees and contractors described dubious corporate practices, including payments delayed for months, contracts with political campaigns rife with self-dealing, and overworked and underpaid jobs. Johnson has been described as "very abusive, very toxic, screaming at people, like using profanity, vulgarity, making women cry, like pushing them to the edge."^[25]

In August 2024, two Russian state media employees were charged with secretly funding almost $10 million to a Tennessee company for the production of political videos to benefit Russia by influencing the United States. The company's description matches that of Tenet Media, which had employed Johnson and other right-wing influencers, with him responding that "myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme", with a request being made for him to produce content for a "media startup", and that he had a "standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated."^[26][27]

Personal life

Johnson is married to Katelyn Rieley,^[8] with whom he has four children as of 2025.^[28][29]