Published SourceSource / Evidence Document

BuzzFeed Circulates CEN Conchita Wurst News Brief Before Later CEN Investigation

This 13 May 2014 email shows BuzzFeed staff, including Richard James, Alan White and Tom Phillips, receiving and circulating a CEN news brief about Conchita Wurst and an Austrian Facebook campaign after Eurovision. The document is a supporting example in the wider evidence chain because it records CEN material flowing directly into BuzzFeed’s editorial system months before BuzzFeed later investigated CEN as a supplier of dubious viral stories. It should be read alongside other Richard James and BuzzFeed/CEN prior-use documents, because it helps document that CEN material was not unknown, marginal or merely external to BuzzFeed: it was being received, forwarded and considered by the same newsroom figures who later worked on or were copied into the CEN investigation.

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

BuzzFeedCENMike LeidigRichard JamesAlan WhiteTom PhillipsDavid RogersConchita WurstEurovisionAustriaCEN news briefBuzzFeed UKprior useeditorial queueclient use contradictioninternal BuzzFeed emailsviral newspublication chainfake news narrativelibel case evidence

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Reference / Evidence Only — not licensed for reuse

Credit: newsX

These documents are made available as source material connected to the Central European News and Mike Leidig v BuzzFeed libel proceedings and the related book. They are provided for reference, research, and evidential context only. No reuse licence is granted by the uploader, and any further use is the responsibility of the person using the material.

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