About Me

I'm Steven Monacelli. I'm an award winning investigative journalist in Dallas, Texas, where I primarily focus on extremism, disinformation, social movements, and the influence of dark money in politics.  I currently serve as a Special Investigative Correspondent for the Texas Observer and a columnist for The Barbed Wire.

discredit it. I have received the The Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award for revealing the identifies of far-right extremists, including government employees. I have also been sued for defamation by Republican megadonor Monty Bennett, who lost that case. My investigative reporting found that Bennett paid Crowds on Demand, a company that offers protestors-for-hire, to create a network of astroturf groups in Dallas, including Dallas Justice Now, a hoax Black Lives Matter organization that claimed without evidence that I committed racist harassment and domestic abuse in articles in the Dallas Express, a right-wing propaganda website news website Bennett also funds. In other words, a wealthy right wing donor paid a company to hire actors to pretend to be local activists, and published articles quoting those actors to discredit a journalist who reported on the donor's political activities.

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. You can see a consolidated list of my articles at my Authory page.

I'm also the publisher of Protean Magazine, a nonprofit literary magazine, and am a co-founder of Apprentice Creative Space, a nonprofit creative community space in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, Texas.