Monkey See…or…If You Can’t Beat ‘Em…Steal ‘Em…
Let’s see…Jeff Zucker said Buzzfeed isn’t a legitimate news organization. So of course he goes and hires away a bunch of those “poseurs”…as the Huffinton Post’s Michael Calderone scooped today…
BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski and his scoop-driven political research team are joining CNN during the final, frenetic stretch of the 2016 election and beyond.
Kaczynski, 26, has been one of the standout reporters of the campaign season as his K-File team has consistently broken news through deeply mining candidates’ past statements and actions. Three other members of the team ― BuzzFeed deputy politics editor Kyle Blaine and reporters Nate McDermott and Christopher Massie ― are making the jump with him.
The hiring of Kaczynski and company is a major coup for CNN and follows a recent spat between network chief Jeff Zucker and BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith. In August, Zucker said BuzzFeed wasn’t a “legitimate” news organization, prompting Smith to criticize the network for boosting Trump in the pursuit of ratings. The mini-exodus also comes amid questions about BuzzFeed’s commitment to original reporting following a recent reorganization.
Inside Cable News 
October 4, 2016 at 7:10 am
Good hire by CNN but not hardly a stop the presses story. Kaczynski and the others are a well respected video research team and will be very useful to CNN in the lead up to the election, where both POTUS candidates have been in the pubic eye for decades.
The fact that news of the hires comes from Kaczynski and not CNN and that he’s not getting a fancy title – at the network where even the janitors are either seniors or chiefs – tells me that, aside from the BuzzFeed/CNN feud angle, this is just not that big a deal.