Claim: Emmy award-winning producer Steve Benen served as lead blogger of Political Animal blog and published The Carpetbagger Report.
Evidence: Steve Benen (born May 15, 1973) is an American political writer and blogger, an MSNBC contributor, and an Emmy award-winning producer for The Rachel Maddow Show. From August 2008 to January 2012, Benen was the lead blogger for the Washington Monthly's "Political Animal" blog. He was the publisher of the political blog The Carpetbagger Report for five years and was the lead editor of Salon.com's Blog Report.