
Most journalists can craft a pretty good straight news story, in that classic inverted pyramid style. All the facts, expertly and objectively told.
But then there are other journalists, those who have a unique talent for taking that same set of facts but putting them into a context and a perspective with such nuance and grace that it almost becomes a whole new story.
One of the great practitioners in that second category was longtime CBS radio and television personality Charles Osgood.
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His special skill was taking the mundane and turning it into something sparkling, taking some ordinary government pronouncement and turning it into something you would tell your grandchildren about.
His daily feature on CBS radio was known as “Tile Osgood File.” In 1991 Osgood published a collection of some of his best work, in a book called, of course, The Osgood Files. That was when I first met him.
So here now, from 1991, Charles Osgood.
Charles Osgood died in 2024. He was 91.