October 3, 2016 | No Comments
CNN has poached BuzzFeed’s entire investigative political research team led by reporter Andrew Kaczynski.
BuzzFeed News’s “K-File” team, which includes Kaczynski, BuzzFeed News deputy politics editor Kyle Blaine, and BuzzFeed News reporters Nate McDermott and Christopher Massie, will begin working at CNN Tuesday, the cable channel told The Huffington Post, which first reported the hires.
The team told BuzzFeed that they were departing on Monday.
“To be at the biggest name in news for the last month of what has been the craziest election in modern history is just a great opportunity for me and everybody on our team,” Kaczynski told The Huffington Post. “When the opportunity was there, we made sure we took it.”
Kaczynski said the decision was made because of the resources CNN had to offer.
Kaczynski and his K-File team, which has been compared to a political opposition research team, have broken story after story this election cycle by digging up comments candidates have made in radio interviews, television appearances and old articles. For instance, Kaczynski’s team last week dug up a softcore pornographic video in which Republican candidate Donald Trump appeared.
The K-File team will get their own page on CNN’s site following the election, and will work on major gubernatorial and mayoral elections following the November presidential election.
The hire is a big loss for BuzzFeed News, as Kaczynski’s team gave the organization some of its most noteworthy election scoops throughout 2016. The loss also comes after BuzzFeed News editor in chief Ben Smith and CNN head Jeff Zucker spoke critically of each others’ news operations following Zucker’s comments that BuzzFeed was not a “legitimate” news operations.
In August, BuzzFeed reorganized its news and video operations, prompting some to question the site’s commitment to its original reporting unit. Smith and BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti have repeatedly emphasized their commitment to BuzzFeed News.