Richard James Calls CEN “The Biggest Jokers Of All” While Planning To Unsubscribe

This 7 October 2014 BuzzFeed email chain shows Luke Lewis, Alan White and Richard James discussing UK press agencies in a thread headed “SWNS”, with large parts of the underlying exchange redacted. The visible text is significant because Alan White says BuzzFeed needed to be “even more careful with CEN” and that “95% of their stories wouldn’t make the Sunday Sport”, before Richard James replies: “Agreed, CEN are the biggest jokers of all. I think I’m going to unsubscribe to them, almost all of their stuff is complete bullshit.” The document is important because it records an early internal BuzzFeed attitude towards CEN and smaller UK-style press agencies before the later CEN investigation had taken full shape. It should be read alongside the later Richard James and BuzzFeed prior-use documents, because James’s dismissive comments and intention to unsubscribe sit uneasily beside other records showing him using, flagging or acknowledging CEN material at Metro and BuzzFeed. The document therefore helps explain the contradiction in James’s role: he had direct experience of CEN material as part of ordinary newsroom supply, but later internal records do not show him foregrounding that history when BuzzFeed was looking for CEN examples, original copy or evidence of how publishers had used the agency’s material.

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