Rhona Tarrant, an internationally recognized verification expert and international journalist, has been named executive editor of CBS News Confirmed, a new unit focused on misinformation. Tarrant will begin her new role on April 1 and report to Claudia Milne, senior vice president for CBS News and Stations and head of standards and practices.

Tarrant brings to CBS News a wealth of experience identifying misinformation and disinformation for major news organizations. Additionally, she has trained journalists worldwide to verify, debunk and track online misinformation and disinformation through her work with the Google News Initiative and Storyful, where she has been head of editorial, US, since 2019.

“Rhona Tarrant is one of the leading journalists and editors working in and breaking new ground in the area of verifying information,” said Milne. “She has developed new tools to uncover misinformation and disinformation and has worked across multiple platforms. Her experience and leadership will be an asset to CBS News Confirmed.”

“The rise of generative AI and online misinformation has made the role of journalists more critical than ever,” said Tarrant. “I am thrilled to join the exceptional team at CBS News to lead this new unit dedicated to visual verification and fact-checking. Together, we’ll support CBS News’ unwavering commitment to journalistic excellence and empower our audience to sort fact from fiction.”

CBS News Confirmed is a new initiative that brings together a team of highly skilled journalists who use data and technology to verify and fact-check questionable videos and reports and explain CBS News’ verification process. CBS News Confirmed represents an investment in several key areas: hiring forensic journalists, new training, state-of-the-art technology and other tools, all focused on ensuring that CBS News combats misinformation and ensures the accuracy of its reporting.

Tarrant joins CBS News from Storyful, where she built a team of a dozen journalists who verified social media footage for a newswire serving the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CBS News, ABC, Gannett and others for the last five years. She oversaw all editorial output in North America, including award-winning visual investigations, newswire reports and breaking news alerts. She also set standards and protocols for open-source investigations and visual verification practices.

Earlier, Tarrant served as EMEA deputy editor at Storyful, where she led daily coverage of international news events from Dublin.

Tarrant was selected for two Berkman Klein Center fellowships at Harvard University in 2020 and 2021, where she researched disinformation and AI, and led a team that created a database to help journalists better understand influence operations on social media.

Tarrant worked from 2014 to 2015 at WNYC Radio in New York, where, as an assistant producer, she focused on a year-long investigative series that uncovered inaccurate reporting of road traffic deaths in New York City.

From 2011 to 2017, Tarrant served as a producer and reporter for RTÉ Radio and Television in Dublin.

Tarrant earned a master’s degree in journalism and communications from Griffith College Dublin and a bachelor’s degree in new media and English from the University of Limerick.

She will be based in New York.

Press Contact:

Christa Robinson

RobinsonC@CBSNews.com