CNN PR Exec Drags Benny Johnson: We Almost Hired You Until We Discovered You Were A Plagiarist

One of Media Twitter’s favorite pastimes is owning serial plagiarist and current Daily Caller ‘reporter’ Benny Johnson, such as when Benny attempted to shame the left by falsely claiming Kanye West was “born impoverished.” (He would later delete that tweet after facing widespread mockery and accusations of casual racism.)

Earlier today, Johnson did what he does best — sending out trollish tweets in an attempt to trigger the snowflakes on the left. In this instance, he took aim at CNN as he mocked the network’s ‘Facts First’ campaign while quote-tweeting a claim that CNN didn’t cover the domestic abuse arrest of Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti. (They did, by the way.)

I’ll do this in language CNN can understand:

Real News:🍎

CNN: 🍌 🗑 https://t.co/jPd0uIOJ6W

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) November 15, 2018

Well, in the end, Johnson would end up being the one triggered.

Shortly after sending this tweet, CNN PR executive Matt Dornic replied by pointing out that while Johnson was ridiculing CNN now, back in the day he wanted to work at the network but they ended up passing because they found out he was a “pathological plagiarist.”

Hey @bennyjohnson. Don’t you think you should disclose that you wanted to work at CNN — and we almost hired you — until you were discovered to be a pathological plagiarist? https://t.co/ZaEGxIwXpV

— Matt Dornic (@mdornic) November 15, 2018

This would lead to Johnson blocking Dornic almost immediately.

Bye Felicia. pic.twitter.com/imn7cNNRrS

— Matt Dornic (@mdornic) November 15, 2018

Of course, as HuffPost’s Ashley Feinberg highlighted, it was weird to think Johnson was ever a good hire to begin with.

weird to brag about ever thinking benny was a good hire https://t.co/Io5mhu1X0V

— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) November 15, 2018

"get this guy in here immediately" pic.twitter.com/GcpqrVmt78

— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) November 15, 2018

"it's a good thing this plagiarism thing came out, otherwise there'd have been absolutely no way to know how much this guy sucked" pic.twitter.com/VjtV42MTYT

— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) November 15, 2018

Johnson was fired from his BuzzFeed editor job in 2014 after more than 40 instances of plagiarism were found in articles he authored. Despite that scarlet letter, the National Review hired him as a digital director and he later joined conservative upstart IJR as creative content director. (Disclaimer: This author briefly worked with Johnson.) After a tumultuous two-year run at the outlet, which included further accusations of plagiarism, his involvement in an Obama conspiracy article, and complaints about his abusive management style, Johnson was fired in 2017.

Somehow, Johnson has persevered and right-wing outlet The Daily Caller brought him aboard late last year, resulting in him scoring an Oval Office interview with the president yesterday.