起底共和黨幕後操盤手羅傑•艾爾斯
God seems to be toying with American conservatives. On the same day Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination, Roger Ailes, legendary creator of Fox News, was being ushered out of his role.
上帝似乎在戲耍美國的保守派。在唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)獲得共和黨總統候選人提名的這一天，福克斯新聞(Fox News)的傳奇創始人羅傑•艾爾斯(Roger Ailes)即將走下自己的寶座。
Mr Trump’s rise may have taken the world by surprise but it is hard to imagine his message having taken root without Mr Ailes’ groundwork.
特朗普的崛起或許讓世界措手不及，但很難想象特朗普是在沒有艾爾斯支持的情況下，成功讓自己傳遞的訊息紮下了根。
Felled by sexual harassment allegations from a former Fox anchor, the news channel’s departing creator is no household name. Yet Mr Ailes has played wizard behind the curtain to more than two generations of Republican presidential candidates, conservative pundits and intellectuals. He is the creator and destroyer of ambitions — the Shiva of US conservatism. Without Mr Ailes, Rupert Murdoch would have been a far less potent figure on the US scene.
艾爾斯是被這家新聞電視臺的一名前主播的性騷擾指控打倒的，這位即將離職的福克斯新聞創始人並不是一個家喻戶曉的人物。然而，他是超過兩代共和黨總統候選人、保守派專家和知識分子的幕後操盤手。他是野心的創造者和毀滅者——美國保守主義的溼婆。沒有艾爾斯，魯伯特•默多克(Rupert Murdoch)在美國的影響力會小得多。
In fact God’s theatrical timing is even odder than it seems. Mr Trump’s convention theme draws explicitly from Richard Nixon’s successful 1968 law and order presidential campaign, which was shaped by a young Mr Ailes. That was the election that launched the then 27-year-old on to the national scene. Mr Ailes cornered Mr Nixon and said: “The camera doesn’t like you,” in reference to his notorious 1960 televised debate performance with John Kennedy. “It’s a shame you have to use gimmicks like television to get elected,” Nixon replied. “Television is not a gimmick,” Ailes replied. “And if you think it is, you’ll lose again.” Mr Ailes’ role was chronicled in the classic book The Selling of the President. From then on, he was an acknowledged master of that medium.
事實上，上帝的戲劇性時間安排比看上去更奇怪。在共和黨全國代表大會上，特朗普的講話主題明顯取自理查德•尼克松(Richard Nixon)1968年有關法律和秩序的成功競選主題，後者正是由當時還很年輕的艾爾斯操刀的。那次選舉讓當時27歲的艾爾斯走上了全國舞臺。艾爾斯強勢地對尼克松說：“電視鏡頭不喜歡你。”他說的是1960年尼克松在與約翰•肯尼迪(John F Kennedy)進行電視辯論時出名的糟糕表現。“爲了當選而不得不利用像電視這樣的噱頭，這真令人遺憾，”尼克松回答。“電視不是噱頭，”艾爾斯回答說，“而且如果你這麼想，你會再一次失敗。”艾爾斯所扮演的角色載入了經典圖書《推銷總統》(The Selling of the President)之中。從那時起，他就是公認的電視媒介大師。
Mr Ailes came from a blue-collar background — his father was a factory foreman in Ohio. He has described his upbringing as “God, country, family”. Those small-town values have always driven his politics. But his genius as a media figure and political consultant was built on something deeper: a psychological insight into middle America’s profound resentment of urban liberal elites.
艾爾斯來自於一個藍領家庭——他的父親是俄亥俄州的一名工廠工頭。他將他所受到的教養描述爲“上帝、鄉村、家庭”。那些小鎮價值觀一直推動着他的政治生涯。但他作爲一個媒體人物和政治顧問的天才建立在更深層的東西上：一種對“美國心臟地帶（middle America，這是美式英語中的一句俗語，用於描述地理上的美國大部分鄉村與郊區的文化狀態和區域特徵——編者注）”憎惡城市自由派精英之深刻情緒的心理洞察力。
It was a mindset he spotted in Nixon. He also advised two other presidents, including George H.W. Bush, and figures such as Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York. It was Mr Ailes, not Lee Atwater, who proposed and filmed the infamous Willie Horton advertisements in 1988 that helped destroy Michael Dukakis’s presidential chances and elect Bush senior. Much like Nixon’s 1968 campaign, and Mr Trump’s “Make America safe again” theme, the Willie Horton ads played on white fears of black crime.
他在尼克松身上看到了這種心態。他還擔任過包括老布什(George H.W. Bush)在內的另外兩位總統和前紐約市長魯迪•朱利安尼(Rudy Giuliani)等人物的顧問。也是艾爾斯，而非李•阿特沃特(Lee Atwater)，提議並拍攝了1988年著名的威利•霍頓(Willie Horton)廣告，從而使邁克爾•杜卡基斯(Michael Dukakis)當上總統的機會化爲烏有，而老布什得以當選。和尼克松1968年的競選主題以及特朗普的“讓美國再次安全起來”(Make America safe again)的競選主題一樣，威利•霍頓廣告利用了白人對黑人犯罪的恐懼。
But it was only with the launch of Fox News, which will celebrate its 20th birthday in October, that Mr Ailes began to alter the contours of the US political landscape.
但艾爾斯真正開始改變美國的政治面貌，是在福克斯新聞開播以後。福克斯新聞將在今年10月份迎來建臺20週年紀念。
Some compare Fox’s influence to Rush Limbaugh’s daily talk radio show, or Matt Drudge’s website the Drudge Report. But Fox’s ability to dictate mainstream opinion is far greater than that. At $1bn in annual profits, Fox News makes more money than all the other cable TV and network news channels combined. No channel can make or break a presidential hopeful like Fox. Candidates launch their bids from Fox studios and earn their keep in between elections as paid Fox contributors. Among others, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, John Kasich and Mr Guiliani have all been employed by Fox.
一些人將福克斯的影響力和拉什•林博(Rush Limbaugh)的每日電臺脫口秀、或馬特•德魯奇(Matt Drudge)的網站“德魯奇報告”(Drudge Report)相比。但福克斯主宰主流觀點的能力遠大於這兩者。福克斯新聞的年利潤達到10億美元，賺的錢比所有其他有線電視和網絡新聞頻道加起來還要多。沒有哪個頻道能像福克斯一樣製造或者毀掉一個有希望的總統競選人。競選人們從福克斯的演播室裏宣佈參選，在大選之間的間隔擔任福克斯的付費嘉賓掙自己的生活費。紐特•金裏奇(Newt Gingrich)、邁克•哈克比(Mike Huckabee)、裏克•桑托勒姆(Rick Santorum)、約翰•卡西奇(John Kasich)和朱利安尼都被福克斯聘用過。
One exception is Mr Trump, whose love-hate relationship with Fox last year played out through his public duel with Megyn Kelly, its most highly rated anchor, whom Mr Trump described as a “bimbo”. Their reconciliation was brokered by Mr Ailes earlier this year but only after Mr Trump had boycotted a Fox-hosted presidential debate.
特朗普是一個例外，他和福克斯愛恨交織的關係，去年以他和福克斯評價最高的主持人梅金•凱利(Megyn Kelly)的公開交鋒而在大衆面前上演，特朗普稱凱利是一個“花瓶”。兩人今年早些時候在艾爾斯的調停下和解，但之前特朗普抵制了福克斯主持的一場總統辯論。
The New York property magnate is the first big Republican figure to have taken on Mr Ailes and come off evens — if not better. His rise is perhaps the clearest sign that Fox News’s political influence may have passed its peak. To be sure, Mr Trump continues to bask in the support of leading Fox anchors, such as Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity. But, unlike his predecessors, Mr Trump can always turn to another medium, Twitter, which has been his chief publicity tool since he declared his candidacy.
這位紐約地產大亨是首位和艾爾斯正面較量並以平局收場（如果不是更佔上風的話）的共和黨大人物。他的崛起可能是表明福克斯新聞的政治影響力已過巔峯的最清楚跡象。誠然，特朗普將繼續享受比爾•奧雷利(Bill O' Reilly)、肖恩•漢尼蒂(Sean Hannity)等福克斯主要主持人的支持。但和他的前輩不同，特朗普總可以轉向另一個媒介——Twitter。自他宣佈參選以來，Twitter一直是特朗普主要的宣傳工具。
Doubtless Nixon would have seen Twitter as a gimmick, as did many of Mr Trump’s rivals in the Republican primaries. But as Mr Ailes showed, political success requires mastery of the age’s leading medium. It is perhaps fitting that television’s “evil genius” is stepping aside just as politics moves on to newer technologies.
毫無疑問，尼克松肯定會把Twitter看成噱頭，就如特朗普在共和黨初選中的許多競爭對手那樣。但就如艾爾斯展示的，政治成功需要掌握當代最領先的媒介。隨着政治轉向更新的技術，電視“鬼才”退出舞臺或許恰如其分。
