Published SourceSource / Evidence Document

Craig Silverman Asks CEN Rival Storyful For Russian Speaker On Bieber Bear Story

This document is a 7 August 2014 email from Craig Silverman to David Clinch at Storyful, copied to Mandy Jenkins and Mark Little, with the subject “Need someone who speaks Russian”. It is included in the Source Library as source/evidence material connected to the BuzzFeed/CEN case and the early investigation of the Justin Bieber bear story that later became central to Silverman’s involvement with CEN. It records Silverman asking Storyful, a rival organisation operating in the online verification and social-news market, for a Russian speaker who could make urgent phone calls about the Pravda bear-attack story, the Austrian Times version, the use of Pravda images credited to EuroPics or CEN, and whether CEN had inserted the Bieber ringtone detail. It is relevant because it helps document that Silverman did not yet have the Russian-language reporting needed to confirm the key point himself, was relying partly on Google Translate, and sought help from a CEN rival while already framing CEN as the possible source of the allegedly false Bieber detail. The important addition is that Storyful should not be described as just “outside help”. Storyful was operating in a closely related market: verifying, sourcing, licensing and supplying online/social-media material to publishers. That made it commercially and editorially adjacent to CEN, and in some respects a rival. So the document is more interesting because Silverman was not merely asking a neutral translator for help; he was asking people inside another verification/content business to assist with a story that could damage CEN.

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

Tags

BuzzFeedCENCentral European NewsCraig SilvermanDavid ClinchStoryfulMandy JenkinsMark LittleJustin Bieber bear storyAustrian TimesEuroPicsPravdaRussian speakerGoogle Translatesource evidenceverificationdebunkingfake news narrative

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Credit: newsX

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