BuzzFeed's Benny Johnson Fired Following Plagiarism Revelations

BuzzFeed has fired viral politics editor Benny Johnson after uncovering serial plagiarism in his work.

BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith wrote in a note late Friday night that he and a team of colleagues had reviewed hundreds of Johnson's posts and found "40 instances of sentences or phrases copied word for word from other sites" in his work.

Smith apologized, adding, "We are deeply embarrassed and sorry to have misled you. Benny’s editors -- I, Katherine Miller, John Stanton, Shani Hilton, and McKay Coppins -- bear real responsibility."

The plagiarism charges first surfaced after a pair of Twitter users began pointing out examples where Johnson appeared to have copied or reworded text from the work of others. Gawker then wrote about the allegations, bringing them to the attention of a much wider audience.

Smith said BuzzFeed would correct every post where plagiarism was found and add editor's notes to them.

Johnson was previously with Glenn Beck's The Blaze, and has also written for Breitbart News.