How a news story is made

French news read in French is a finished product; these are the words for the way there. Among them is la tribune, which does three jobs the English word « tribune » no longer does at all. Two are physical: la tribune is a stand in a stadium — la tribune présidentielle — and the rostrum a speaker stands at, monter à la tribune. The third is the one this list is about: une tribune is a signed opinion piece written for a paper by somebody who does not work there, which is what une tribune de médecins or signer une tribune refers to. English has no cognate left for that — « tribune » survives as the Roman official, as the rostrum in history books, and as a newspaper’s name — so it says « op-ed », after the page the piece used to sit opposite. One French word, three English ones.