Tegna Lays Off Entire National Fact-Checking and ‘Misinformation’ Team
Kristoffer Tripplaar/Sipa USA via AP Images
Television news and media company Tegna laid off its entire national fact-checking team this week less than a month after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Tegna – which was spun off from the media company Gannett in 2015 – closed its national “Verify” fact-checking department on Monday, laying off more than a dozen journalists in the process.
“As some of you may have heard, TEGNA laid off our national VERIFY team today,” wrote Verify senior editor Sara Roth in a post on LinkedIn. “That means many incredible journalists are available for work. Are you looking to hire? Let me tell you about these amazing people.”
According to Roth’s post, at least 19 journalists and “misinformation analysts” were laid off as part of the closing of the team, which was created nearly ten years ago in 2015.
“We believe that in addition to seeking the truth, journalists must also stop the spread of misinformation and disinformation that has become so pervasive in our national discourse, especially on social media,” the “about” page on Tegna’s website currently reads. “That’s why we launched VERIFY to help viewers and users distinguish between true and false information.”
In a statement to The Desk, a Tegna spokesperson said, “Over the last several years, we’ve learned that the most impactful Verify work we’re doing is at our local stations.”
They concluded, “We’re going to continue that work. Our top priority is to deliver trustworthy, accurate information to local audiences.”
Tegna laid off hundreds of employees last year as the company sought to move towards artificial intelligence and automation.
Under CEO Michael Steib, who was hired in June 2024, the company even used artificial intelligence to generate articles.
Facebook parent company Meta also announced last month that it would part ways with its fact-checking partners, claiming that the system had gone “too far” and had “destroyed more trust” than it created.
“The fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, especially in the US,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg after meeting with President Trump. “So over the next couple of months, we’re going to phase in a more comprehensive community note system.”
