Luke Lewis Credits Heidi Blake And Says BuzzFeed’s CEN Story Will “Make Waves”

This 24–25 April 2015 email chain shows BuzzFeed UK staff congratulating each other immediately after publication of the CEN article, with Luke Lewis describing it as “the product of months of work by Alan and Tom” and saying it would “make waves” because CEN had sold “dubious stories to some of the biggest names in media”. The document is significant because Lewis’s framing again presents the article as an exposé of CEN and major publishers without acknowledging BuzzFeed’s own earlier receipt and use of CEN material, which should be cross-referenced with other internal BuzzFeed emails showing CEN stories being circulated and appreciated inside BuzzFeed before the investigation. The chain is also important because Lewis explicitly says “this wasn’t Heidi investigation”, while adding that Heidi Blake “did advise us on it and helped make it awesome and bulletproof”, making the document useful for understanding the internal editorial credit, oversight and legal-confidence claims around the article. It also records Lynzy Billing noting an “updated Wikipedia page” within minutes of publication, without the chain explaining who made the update, which makes this item relevant to the wider evidence trail around how the public narrative about CEN and Mike Leidig was amplified immediately after BuzzFeed’s article went live.

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