BuzzFeed Draft Showing CEN Allegations Still Had Proof Questions

This document is a confidential BuzzFeed draft of its planned article about Central European News, setting out the emerging case against CEN through examples including the Lucita Sandoval story, the Justin Bieber bear story, Chinese viral stories, disputed quotes, CEN picture credits and the agency’s relationship with MailOnline and other publishers. It is included in the Source Library as source/evidence material connected to the BuzzFeed/CEN case and the pre-publication development of BuzzFeed’s article. It records BuzzFeed framing CEN as part of a “too good to check” viral-news ecosystem while also acknowledging that BuzzFeed News had previously bought CEN pictures and copy, had written about stories originating with the agency, and had found many CEN stories that appeared to be real. It is relevant because the draft shows the fake-news narrative being assembled while unresolved proof questions remained visible inside the document, including whether particular stories were actually CEN stories and whether BuzzFeed could prove the same CEN-copy link across the examples it wanted to use.

Source

Part of Central European News & Mike Leidig v BuzzFeed (US Second Circuit Libel Case) – BF Case Documents

Europe Media Published 1 May 2026 at 21:09 Source: 1 November 2016