Ben Smith Pushes “Fake News Factory” Headline Before BuzzFeed Promotes Final CEN Article

This 24 April 2015 email chain shows BuzzFeed editors debating the headline for the CEN article immediately before and after publication, with Ben Smith rejecting a softer or quirkier framing and saying: “Its such an amazing story and its damning indictment not quirky feature — can we make it inside the fake news factory or something.” The document is significant because it records BuzzFeed’s editor-in-chief personally pushing the article towards a stronger “factory” framing, treating the CEN story not merely as a set of disputed viral examples but as a broad indictment of the agency and the news ecosystem around it. The chain then shows Robert Colvile and Tom Phillips steering back towards the “bullshit news” language, with Phillips saying he liked “The King Of Bullshit News”, and the later disgraced plageriser Ryan Broderick saying he loved “viral bull shit”, and Luke Lewis later noting: “Ha perfect. Back to exactly where we started when we commissioned it.” The final exchange is also important because Lisa Tozzi asks whether the old headline should be fixed, and Lewis says the article is being promoted on Facebook and Twitter “with the new hed”, showing that the damaging headline was not incidental but part of the active social promotion strategy. It should be read alongside the earlier Ben Smith pressure documents and Robert Colvile promotion emails, because it helps document how BuzzFeed’s senior editorial team shaped the public framing of the CEN article and then pushed that framing through social distribution.

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