The White House senior counsellor wants the press to shut up. Will the Administration try the same tactic on federal agencies?
白宮首席政策顧問巴農（Stephen Bannon）想要堵住媒體的嘴，川普內閣也將對聯邦政府機關採取如出一轍的策略嗎？
　
Last Monday, according to the Times, President Donald Trump, meeting in the White House with congressional leaders, told a story about voting fraud that he had supposedly heard from Bernhard Langer, the German professional golfer. (Langer soon issued a statement repudiating Trump’s account.) Throughout the week, the President repeated his calumny that he lost the popular vote only because millions of “illegals” voted for Hillary Clinton. Trump’s obsession with this subject may arise from his pathological need to tally every score in his own favor, but he surely knows that his propaganda also advances the Republican Party’s efforts to extend barriers to legitimate voting by Latinos and African-Americans, through voter-I.D. requirements and other state laws. Diverse studies have turned up no evidence of significant fraud in recent elections. On Wednesday, Trump nonetheless vowed to sign an executive order commissioning a federal investigation.
　
　　根據紐約時報報導，上週一（1月31日）川普拜會參眾兩院領袖時，說了一個其宣稱從德國職業高爾夫選手柏納‧蘭格（Bernhard Langer）那邊得知的投票舞弊事件（後來遭藍格駁斥並非事實）。後續整個星期，川普不斷影射，他之所以輸掉普選票，是因為有上百萬的非法移民將票投給希拉蕊。川普對於此事的狂熱，大概是緣於他慣於贏者全拿的病態需求，但他一定也明白，他對非法移民的負面宣傳，也將使共和黨得以擴大限制拉丁裔與非裔美國人透過持有選民身分證而合法投票。許多調查顯示，川普所言的重大舞弊事件未有證據支持。儘管如此，川普仍在週三簽署行政命令，下令對此事展開調查。
　
The major news organizations are still reckoning with how to report on the President’s lies. Many newspapers and networks now forthrightly point out false statements by Trump and his spokespeople. Such fact checking is essential, but it is also a task of the President’s making, one full of traps. Trump and his aides provoke conflict with the media to fire up supporters and renew the narrative of a people’s champion at war with the bicoastal establishment.
　
　　主要的新聞媒體仍在衡量該如何報導總統的謊言。多家報紙與電視網直截了當地指出川普及其發言人的錯誤陳述。關於此事，媒體的查證工作是必要的，但這項任務正好也對應了川普處心積慮所設下的重重陷阱。隨著媒體煽動支持者，並不時更新這位「人民冠軍」與東西兩岸建制勢力間的爭吵，川普及其從屬得以挑起衝突。
　
One might wish that the solemn responsibility of leading a nuclear-armed world power would steer a successful seventy-year-old man away from routinely telling whoppers, yet it is hardly surprising that Trump has not changed since taking the oath of office. He has a long record as salesman, provocateur, self-promoter, and self-worshipper. His eruptions on Twitter and on live TV damage American democracy and credibility, but there are even more worrying aspects of the disinformation emanating from and around the Administration. During the campaign, Trump’s advisers mobilized in their service a phalanx of information warriors, including commentators on Fox News and digital upstarts such as Breitbart News, whose offerings included partisan and extremist content. A question now is how Trump’s image shapers, led by Stephen Bannon, the former Breitbart head who is the White House senior counsellor, intend to adapt that strategy—which included the promotion of big lies about President Obama’s birth and Secretary Clinton’s health—as policy, embedded across federal agencies.
　
　　或許，人人都希望，領導美國這個核武世界強權的重責大任能夠使這位已是古稀之年的總統不再慣性撒謊；然而，一點兒也不意外地，川普自就職宣誓以來從未改變。過去許多記錄顯示，川普是一個推銷員、挑釁者、自我推崇者和自我崇拜者。他在推特和實況轉播節目上的大砲式攻擊傷害了美國的民主與可信度，但更值得擔憂的是，錯誤資訊也就此不受控制地從政府向外四處蔓延。在競選期間，川普的顧問團隊就動員了資訊作戰方陣，其中包含福斯新聞台評論員，以及政黨立場偏頗並充斥極端內容的新興網路右翼媒體「布萊巴特新聞網」（Breitbart News）。現在，可觀察的一個重點是，從抨擊歐巴馬的出生地到希拉蕊的健康狀態，由白宮首席政策顧問史蒂芬‧巴農（前布萊巴特新聞網執行董事長）領軍的川普形象塑造團隊，將如何將這種資訊策略轉變為深植聯邦政府機構的政策？
　
Bannon has encouraged Trump’s aggressive attacks on the press, even as the President seeks the media’s attention and approval. Last week, in an interview with the Times, Bannon jokingly described himself as Darth Vader, and said that the media should “keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while.” He added that traditional news organizations have “no power” and “zero integrity, zero intelligence.” He apparently foresees a permanent campaign, energized by televised rallies and daily tweets, so that the President may evolve into a kind of digital-age Mussolini Lite.
　
　　巴農不斷鼓吹川普激烈攻擊媒體，即便是川普想要尋求媒體注意和認可時。上週，在接受紐約時報專訪時，巴農開玩笑地形容，自己就像星際大戰中的黑武士，並指出媒體應該「乖乖閉上嘴巴，好好聽聽我們怎麼說」。他還表示，多家傳統媒體組織「無權、不正直、缺乏智慧」。顯然地，巴農在預設一場由電視號召和每日推文助陣的長期宣傳戰，推波川普進化為數位時代的墨索里尼。
 
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作者：Steve Coll
編譯：涂敏
原文網址：http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/06/trumps-information-wars