CBS News is quickly beefing up its newly created division, which focuses on misinformation and disinformation. On Tuesday, CBS News Confirmed announced that Melissa Mahtani will join the unit as executive producer.
Mahtani will work on developing television, digital and social media presentations coming out of the CBS News Confirmed unit.
She begins her new assignment on April 22 and reports to Claudia Milne, senior vice president for CBS News and Stations and head of standards and practices.
“Melissa’s depth and breadth of experience across multiple media platforms makes her the perfect person to lead the audience-facing presentation of the work of CBS News Confirmed,” Milne said. “She knows how to produce stories and shows, tell stories and package information to reach the largest audiences on whatever platforms they’re watching or reading.”
Mahtani was previously with CNN, where she was a senior producer and reporter for CNN’s digital team, a role she has had since 2017. She has had nearly two decades of experience, including international reporting, producing content for multiple platforms and delivering innovative storytelling.
“CBS News Confirmed is the right initiative at the right time,” Mahtani said. “We are witnessing an onslaught of misinformation that makes it harder for people to distinguish between what is real and what is not. CBS News Confirmed will empower our viewers to be able to tell fact from fiction, sharing our own process of verification every step of the way.”
CBS News has been aggressive in staffing its CBS News Confirmed unit. Last month, it named Rhona Tarrant as executive producer, reporting to Milne. Tarrant is a verification expert and experienced international investigative journalist, and Milne says she is one of the leading journalists in the information verification space.