Journalist, Publisher, and Nonprofit Leader in Dallas, Texas

Who is Steven Monacelli?

I'm Steven Monacelli. I'm an award winning investigative journalist in Dallas, Texas, where I primarily focus on extremism, disinformation, social movements, political astroturfing, and the influence of dark money in politics. I am a Special Investigative Correspondent for the Texas Observer, a Columnist for The Barbed Wire, and a contributor to the Cool Zone Media podcast network.
My reporting has appeared in Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Nieman Lab, WIRED, Texas Observer, Texas Monthly, The Daily Dot, and more. My journalistic work has been cited in national and international publications such as USA Today, Bloomberg, The Independent, Le Monde, and others. I've also appeared on CNN, Democracy Now, Law & Crime News, Texas Public Radio, The New Abnormal, and other programs and podcasts to discuss my reporting. I'm also an active nonprofit leader. I am the founding publisher of Protean Magazine, a nonprofit literary magazine; the co-founder of Apprentice Creative Space, a nonprofit creative community space in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, Texas; and a board member of the Retrograde, an independently run student newspaper at the University of Texas at Dallas. I grew up in Colleyville, Texas, and attended Colleyville Heritage High School. I am an alumnus of Northwestern University, where I graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor's of Arts in Communications. Before becoming a journalist, I worked in corporate strategy and operations roles at Deloitte Consulting and Google.

How have people responded to Steven Monacelli's journalism?

My work has drawn accolades. In 2025, I won the The Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award for revealing the identities of far-right extremists, including government employees, and was named Best Reporter of 2025 by D Magazine. I have also been subject to false accusations, harassment, and well-funded attempts to discredit my reporting. Most notably, hotelier and Republican megadonor Monty Bennett and his publication, the Dallas Express, sued me for defamation for describing the Dallas Express as right-wing propaganda and reporting that it has utilized the same fake authors and technology stack as Metric Media, a network of bogus partisan news sites. Bennett lost that case and I continued my reporting, which revealed that Bennett paid Crowds on Demand, a company that offers protestors-for-hire, to create a network of astroturf groups in Dallas that were regularly and often exclusively amplified in articles published by the Dallas Express. Among those groups was Dallas Justice Now, a hoax Black Lives Matter organization that created national controversy in an attempt to discredit the Black Lives Matter movement. After I uncovered evidence that proved Dallas Justice Now was linked to a Republican political firm, Dallas Justice Now retaliated by effectively defaming me, claiming without basis that I have committed racist harassment and domestic abuse in articles in the Dallas Express. In other words, Bennett created a propaganda website that has utilized fake authors to push a specific political agenda, contracted a company to hire actors to pretend to be local activists, and published articles quoting those bogus activists to attack Bennett's critics and make false accusations against a journalist who uncovered the scheme — all of which amounts to a full scale disinformation campaign. The so-called social justice group Dallas Justice Now is now defunct but its false and defamatory allegations remain in the pages of the Dallas Express, which is funded and published by Monty Bennett, the same man who lost his defamation lawsuit against me me for calling The Dallas Express right-wing propaganda.

Was Dallas Justice Now an inauthentic group?

Dallas Justice Now was absolutely an inauthentic group funded and operated by right-wing political operatives. It was widely reported in 2021 by outlets like CNN, VICE, The Independent, D Magazine, Dallas Observer, and Snopes that Dallas Justice Now was linked to Arena, a right-wing political marketing firm. The Texas Observer later reported in 2023 that Dallas Justice Now was pushing conservative talking points, and in 2024 that Dallas Justice Now had not only worked with Arena but had actually been a project of Crowds on Demand, a marketing firm known for hiring actors to portray activists and protesters, and that Crowds on Demand had been hired by Monty Bennett, the Republican megadonor publisher of the Dallas Express, to create a number of groups including Dallas Justice Now and a pro-police group called Keep Dallas Safe.

Did Monty Bennett retaliate against Steven Monacelli for his reporting?

Yes. Bennett unsuccessfully sued Steven Monacelli for defamation and published multiple articles in his website, The Dallas Express, quoting Dallas Justice Now to allege that Monacelli is a racist and that Monacelli committed domestic abuse. Monacelli has denied the allegation of racism and his work has consistently supported anti-racist causes. Monacelli also has denied the allegations of domestic abuse, citing that there have been no credible accusations against him from his longtime partners, no criminal charges against him, and no court decisions relating to charges of domestic abuse. Monacelli characterizes the allegations as not only false but defamatory.