The backstory to the mystery of ‘Cosmo the talking crow’

Beat Check with The Oregonian

Any newspaper editor will tell you readers love animal stories. The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Samantha Swindler took that axiom to the next level this spring with a 12-part video series on the mysterious disappearance of Cosmo, the talking crow.

She joins Editor Therese Bottomly on “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to discuss the narrative, which also was published on Instagram, Facebook and, of course, OregonLive.

Cosmo first came to the newsroom’s attention after a viral story out of Williams about a talking crow that had “befriended” an elementary school. Swindler, who works on the Here is Oregon features team, reached out to obtain audio or video of this supposed talking crow.

She quickly learned Cosmo was missing and the crow may not have been the beloved local fixture we first envisioned. Originally conceived as a podcast, “The Mystery of Cosmo the Talking Crow” quickly morphed into an experiment in creative multimedia storytelling on TikTok, the social media platform so much in the headlines these days.

In this episode of Beat Check, we talk about:

--Why Swindler was drawn to the quirky story

--The reporting challenges she faced

--The question of whether Cosmo really did talk

--Why humans can’t resist anthropomorphizing animals -- that is, attributing human behaviors and motives and emotions to our pets

Within the episode, Swindler refers to “Serial,” the groundbreaking and hugely popular true crime podcast (We are careful to note nothing about the Cosmo story involves actual true “crime.”).

She also makes reference to a “milkshake duck” moment, a reference to a fictional duck that is cute and beloved until it is revealed to be racist. Like that internet meme, Cosmo, too, was cute on the outside but perhaps had a touch of evil within, depending on who is talking.

And Swindler still hopes for “The Jinx” reveal, as in the HBO docuseries hot-mic moment where Robert Durst appears to confess. Alas (spoiler alert), Swindler and the rest of us are still waiting for the final word on Cosmo’s fate.

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