Rhona Tarrant has been named the executive editor of CBS News Confirmed, which focuses on debunking misinformation. She starts April 1 and will report to Claudia Milne, senior VP, CBS News and Stations and head of standards and practices.
She will be based in New York.
Tarrant has been head of editorial, US, at news and intelligence agency Storyful 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.”
CBS News Confirmed is a new initiative that brings together a team of journalists who use data and technology to verify and fact-check questionable videos and reports and ensure that CBS News reporting is as accurate as possible.
“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.”
At Storyful, Tarrant built a team of a dozen journalists who verified social media footage for a newswire. She was selected for a fellowships at Harvard, where she researched disinformation and AI.
Tarrant worked at WNYC Radio in New York in 2014 and 2015 and was previously a producer and reporter at RTÉ Radio and Television in Dublin. She got a master’s in journalism and communications from Griffith College Dublin and a bachelor’s in new media and English from the University of Limerick.
