美国国家公共电台 NPR Finding The Middle In The Incivility War

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Last week's special congressional election in Montana got national attention for more than the issues. A journalist has called for police to investigate Republican Greg Gianforte for assaulting him, an encounter captured in a recording¹ and witnessed by others. It's the latest example of hostility² toward journalists. It's also sparked a round of discussion about civility. NPR's Vanessa Romo reports.

VANESSA ROMO, BYLINE³: The violent incident that went viral instantly has people wondering if an invisible line has been crossed. Reaction in the social media world from all sides raised three questions. The first - how did we get here?

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GREG GIANFORTE: I'm sick and tired of you guys. The last time you came here you did the same thing.

ROMO: Some blamed Gianforte. Some sided with him. Others pointed⁴ to President Trump⁵, who's called the mainstream⁶ press the enemy of the people. But the root of it, according to author Deborah Tannen, is the animosity in the political divide, which she traces back more than two decades to the ideas in her book, "The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War Of Words."

DEBORAH TANNEN: I was making the point then that we are more and more approaching everything in an adversarial spirit. We conceive of ideas as warring camps - war on cancer, war on drugs.

ROMO: As a linguistics⁷ professor, she says the use of the word war in this context planted a seed that's in full bloom now, that there's no middle ground and everything is a battlefield, as Americans experienced through the 2016 elections. The second big question - where's the ref in all this? In the political arena⁸, the ref never seems to step forward, though Paul Ryan, speaker of the House, came close this week.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PAUL RYAN: Should the gentleman apologize? Yeah, I think he should apologize.

ROMO: But he was roundly criticized for not outlining any concrete repercussions⁹ from the party. Rabbi Jack¹⁰ Moline tried to get in the middle during the highly incivil 2000 presidential election when the Interfaith Alliance, a group of religious leaders, bonded¹¹ together to tackle the problem. But...

JACK MOLINE: We started getting calls from all over the country asking us to enforce what people considered to be violations¹². And they demanded that Interfaith Alliance step in and call these people out publicly.

ROMO: The alliance was overwhelmed and they couldn't figure out how to force people to be more civil, so they dropped it. The final outcry online came after Gianforte did apologize. What good is your sorry was the gist¹³ of it.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GIANFORTE: Last night, I made a mistake.

ROMO: Gianforte won, and the apology to Jacobs came wrapped up in his victory speech. Cindy Frantz, a social and environmental psychologist, studied what makes a good apology. Overall, this contained important features.

CINDY FRANTZ: He clearly expressed that he understood that what he did was wrong. And he clearly expressed that he will not behave that way in the future.

ROMO: But the timing¹⁴ was off. Gianforte had already denied Jacobs' account and blamed him for the body slam. Plus, Frantz says, it's not really for Jacobs.

FRANTZ: He was talking to the public.

ROMO: As it stands now, Gianforte is headed to Capitol Hill, but not before a court appearance. He's been charged with misdemeanor assault and could face up to six months in jail. I'm sure Twitter will have plenty to say about that. Vanessa Romo, NPR News, Washington.

1 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

2 hostility   

n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争

参考例句：

• There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
• His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

5 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

6 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

7 linguistics   

n.语言学

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• Linguistics is a scientific study of the property of language.语言学是指对语言的性质所作的系统研究。

8 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

9 repercussions   

n.后果，反响( repercussion的名词复数 )；余波

参考例句：

• The collapse of the company will have repercussions for the whole industry. 这家公司的垮台将会给整个行业造成间接的负面影响。
• Human acts have repercussions far beyond the frontiers of the human world. 人类行为所产生的影响远远超出人类世界的范围。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

11 bonded   

n.有担保的，保税的，粘合的

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee.威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• This adhesive must be applied to both surfaces which are to be bonded together.要粘接的两个面都必须涂上这种黏合剂。

12 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

13 gist   

n.要旨；梗概

参考例句：

• Can you give me the gist of this report?你能告诉我这个报告的要点吗？
• He is quick in grasping the gist of a book.他敏于了解书的要点。

14 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。