This document is a 25 March 2015 email exchange between Craig Silverman and New York Times journalist Farhad Manjoo with the subject “Media request”, sent almost exactly one month before BuzzFeed published its article about Central European News. Silverman says in the body of the message that he is working with BuzzFeed on CEN’s role in the “viral news ecosystem”, claims that a “decent amount” of CEN material has “false elements”, and asks Manjoo to explain a tweet about CEN so BuzzFeed can include quotes from journalists familiar with the agency’s work. Manjoo replies that he was not reacting to anything specific about CEN, describes it as “mostly just random name”, and says his concern was more about how outlets such as the New York Post, Daily Mail, Yahoo and other news sites cite unfamiliar foreign news services as if they are automatically legitimate, creating what he calls an “obvious signifier” that a story is “too good to check”. It is relevant because Silverman was trying to turn a journalist’s social-media scepticism into supporting external commentary late in the evidence trail, but the response produced no specific evidence against CEN and instead offered a broader criticism of tabloid sourcing habits. The email thread is also relevant because Silverman’s signature repeatedly presents him through Tow Center/Columbia, Regret the Error/Poynter and Emergent credentials, rather than as a BuzzFeed journalist, even while the request was being made for a BuzzFeed article.