美国国家公共电台 NPR High School Journalists Land Scoop With Defense Secretary James Mattis

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And, you know, sometimes the key to landing a good story is to just make the call. Well, that is exactly what Teddy Fischer did. And it landed him an interview with the normally media-shy Jim Mattis.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

You know, Mattis, the retired¹ four-star general who is now President Trump²'s defense³ secretary? Well, this fall, Fischer will be a junior at Mercer Island High School near Seattle. When The Washington Post accidentally published a photo of a Trump aide carrying a sticky note that contained Mattis' phone number, the student journalist knew just what to do.

TEDDY FISCHER: I just took that picture. I just zoomed⁴ in and just turned it upside down and found the number on the sticky note.

JANE GORMLEY: Yeah, I did not believe him at first.

GREENE: OK, that other voice there is Jane Gormley, Fischer's classmate and editor of the Mercer Island High School Islander. They agreed that they would text Secretary Mattis with an interview request. And, as they explained to our co-host Rachel Martin, the secretary called back.

FISCHER: When he called, it was in journalism⁵ class, which I think was pretty funny.

GORMLEY: Yeah, I think it was a couple of weeks after that initial call that we really got serious and were writing questions. We knew from the beginning that Teddy would want to do his piece that was more policy-related and then mine that would be more of a reflection. So we split the questions up that way.

RACHEL MARTIN, BYLINE⁶: Which were very good, by the way.

FISCHER: Thank you.

GORMLEY: Yeah, thank you.

MARTIN: I guess - I'm curious to know, what exchanges stood out to each of you?

GORMLEY: I think when I was asking him about - or when Teddy was asking him about history. And he said that - not a direct quote - but it'll - it won't give you all the answers, but it'll show you the questions to ask. You hear that kind of thing from history teachers all the time, but to hear it from him - to hear it from someone who's making history - really just kind of solidified⁷ it and made me really realize how real that is.

MARTIN: Yeah. Teddy?

FISCHER: The key parts in the policy questions were - I think there was one moment where we were comparing how the Obama and Trump administrations differ on their approach to combating ISIS. And there was - at one point in the interview, he criticized Obama, saying that he would have been better served if he had listened more to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which I think was something that most professional journalists would like to get out of an interview.

MARTIN: Yeah, that was news. That's like - that qualifies as news.

FISCHER: That's new news. And I agree with Jane in what will stick with me is probably the conversations about history and political divide.

MARTIN: On the issue of political divisiveness, he said, generally speaking, just because someone disagrees with you doesn't make them crazy or evil. And he goes on to say, I don't care for ideological⁸ people. It's like those people just want to stop thinking.

FISCHER: Yeah, I think he followed up with that by saying people reaffirm their own bias⁹ all the time by watching and listening to things that cater¹⁰ to their tastes and just reinforce what they already know, which I guess has helped me because I like to explore different sides of the news. I think there's a lot of gray area. And so I listen to many different news sources on each end of the political spectrum¹¹.

MARTIN: How did this interview go over with your audience - with your readers?

GORMLEY: (Laughter) That's also kind of a funny story. So our paper put out a lip dub¹² that our school made - like everyone dancing around the high school and lip-syncing to songs - on our Facebook page. And that, yeah, to this day, I think has more likes than the Mattis interview post does.

MARTIN: Wow. Such is life, right?

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: You did take the opportunity to just say, hey, Jim Mattis, what guidance do you have for young people? And it was an earnest and lovely response. He just said...

GORMLEY: Yeah, it really was.

MARTIN: ...You have to put others first - and then I'm going to quote here - "if you can help the larger community in the world, you won't be lying on a psychiatrist¹³ couch when you're 45 years old wondering what you did with your life." You guys going to take that to heart?

GORMLEY: Yeah, I love that one. Yeah.

MARTIN: So do you still have the secretary of defense's cellphone number saved in your phone?

FISCHER: I do. I texted him a link to my article and...

MARTIN: You did?

FISCHER: Yeah, I'm not - he hasn't - we haven't been in contact with him since the interview, but I think it went through.

MARTIN: Teddy Fischer. He interviewed the Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis for his high school newspaper, The Islander, at Mercer Island High School. He worked with his editor, Jane Gormley, on this. And we've been speaking with both of them. Teddy and Jane, thanks so much and congrats on the big get.

GORMLEY: Yeah, thank you.

FISCHER: Thank you.

GREENE: Don't let go of that number, Teddy. Those two young journalists - wow, I'm feeling inspired - they were talking to our co-host Rachel Martin.

1 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

2 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。

3 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

4 zoomed   

v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的过去式 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨

参考例句：

• Traffic zoomed past us. 车辆从我们身边疾驰而过。
• Cars zoomed helter-skelter, honking belligerently. 大街上来往车辆穿梭不停，喇叭声刺耳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

6 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。

7 solidified   

（使）成为固体，（使）变硬，（使）变得坚固( solidify的过去式和过去分词 )； 使团结一致； 充实，巩固； 具体化

参考例句：

• Her attitudes solidified through privilege and habit. 由于特权和习惯使然，她的看法变得越来越难以改变。
• When threatened, he fires spheres of solidified air from his launcher! 当危险来临，他就会发射它的弹药！

8 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

9 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

10 cater   

vi.(for/to)满足，迎合；(for)提供饮食及服务

参考例句：

• I expect he will be able to cater for your particular needs.我预计他能满足你的特殊需要。
• Most schools cater for children of different abilities.大多数学校能够满足具有不同天资的儿童的需要。

11 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

12 dub   

vt.（以某种称号）授予，给...起绰号，复制

参考例句：

• I intend to use simultaneous recording to dub this film.我打算采用同期录音的方法为这部影片配音。
• It was dubbed into Spanish for Mexican audiences.它被译制成西班牙语以方便墨西哥观众观看。

13 psychiatrist   

n.精神病专家；精神病医师

参考例句：

• He went to a psychiatrist about his compulsive gambling.他去看精神科医生治疗不能自拔的赌瘾。
• The psychiatrist corrected him gently.精神病医师彬彬有礼地纠正他。