pbs高端访谈:白宫利用社会媒体来规避新闻发布会

 　　RAY SUAREZ:Next: to our series about the digital world's cultural impact.

　　NewsHour political editor Christina Bellantoni is here with the Daily Download team.

　　CHRISTINA BELLANTONI:Ordinary citizens have more opportunities to talk directly to the president these days.

　　Joining us to discuss how the White House is using the Internet to work around the press are two journalists from the website Daily Download. Lauren Ashburn is the site's editor in chief. Howard Kurtz is Newsweek's Washington bureau chief and host of CNN's "Reliable Sources."

　　Thanks for being here.

　　So, we're talking about the president hosting a Google Hangout on Google Plus. This seemed designed initially¹ to talk to relatives in faraway places. How did it become a political tool? And what does the president really accomplish here?

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　　LAUREN ASHBURN, Daily-Download.com: Well, I think the president is accomplishing reaching around the press corps² to actually talk to voters and voters who may not answer or ask questions that the regular press would.

　　HOWARD KURTZ, Newsweek/CNN: Like any technology, it might start out with me chatting with you, but companies and politicians now are trying to harness this because it plugs them into a demographic that may not watch a lot of television, that may not read newspapers, for example, but relishes³ the chance, even though relatively⁴ few people get that chance, to ask a question directly to the president of the United States.

　　LAUREN ASHBURN:And you have to understand that this has only been around for 18 months. And the first time that the president did this, he received 135,000 questions. So that would mean that it was a popular way of reaching out. It was something that was really welcomed.

　　HOWARD KURTZ:This time, only thousands of questions, according to Google, which won't provide the exact figure. But you get a bounce from that because people can see it later on all kinds much Web sites and perhaps even in television coverage⁵.

　　CHRISTINA BELLANTONI:Sure.

　　And so that's—more than 7,500 questions came through this Google Hangout. And they got votes from more than 100,000 people—or nearly 100,000. So, what are the types of things that people are asking in these hangouts?

　　HOWARD KURTZ:You know, most of the questions what are what we journalists would call softball, like, why don't you make computer research a required course in college and that sort of thing.

　　But every once in a while, somebody will ask a question that a journalist wouldn't ask and can ask it in a much more pointed⁶ and opinionated way than a reporter normally would.

　　CHRISTINA BELLANTONI:OK. Well, let's take a listen to a clip that we have from the president's Hangout.

　　KIRA DAVIS, Video Blogger: I do remember clearly in 2008, you ran on a platform of really trying to become one of the most transparent⁷ administrations in American history.

　　However, with recent leaked guidelines regarding drone strikes on American citizens, and Benghazi, and closed-door hearings on the budget and deficit⁸, it just feels a lot less transparent than I think we had all hoped it would be. How has the reality of the presidency⁹ changed that promise? And what can we do moving forward to kind of get back to that promise?

　　PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, actually, on a whole bunch of fronts, we have kept that promise. This is the most transparent administration in history.

　　CHRISTINA BELLANTONI:Well, they do Google Hangouts. We know that.

　　So, tell us about a little bit about this woman who asked this question. What was she trying to get at there?

　　LAUREN ASHBURN:Well, I think she's a video blogger and is trying to find out from the president why she doesn't know everything there is to know about our drone program. And this was her way of trying to pin him down.

　　HOWARD KURTZ:Now, you know, a White House official tells me of these Google chats or Facebook town halls or Twitter town halls which Obama has also—President Obama has also participated in, that they are not an attempt to go around the mainstream¹⁰ press.

　　But certainly it is a way to circumvent¹¹ the press room and to speak directly to voters like that. But she couldn't follow up. She didn't have all the details that a reporter would have. But she pinned him down.

　　LAUREN ASHBURN:She did, but—but, as other reporters have said, reporters do this on a daily basis.

　　They know the ins and outs of the White House. They know the ins and outs of policy and can ask more nuanced questions. And I think that while her question was pointed, he was able to circumvent it.

　　HOWARD KURTZ:Because there weren't enough specifics in there in the way that a reporter may have framed the very same topic.

　　LAUREN ASHBURN:Exactly.

　　CHRISTINA BELLANTONI:Sure.

　　Well, in a couple other examples, we see how these can make news. Vice¹² President Biden, he did actually a Google Hangout with our own Hari Sreenivasan on the gun issue, but recently did a Facebook chat. And he had a kind of interesting reaction to some of the questions there.

　　LAUREN ASHBURN:He thought that they weren't supposed to be coming from a parents magazine-sponsored chat.

　　HOWARD KURTZ:The vice president, I think it's fair to say, bristled¹³ at the pointed nature of questions from people who believe in what they would call gun rights.

　　And it led to a long, animated¹⁴, rather aggressive response from Vice President Biden in which he said that, you know, you don't need assault weapons. As I told my wife, Jill, just go get a shotgun. A couple of blasts from that, and you will scare anybody off.

　　Now, that was replayed on television everywhere because the vice president was so vociferous¹⁵ about it.

　　LAUREN ASHBURN:So, while this Facebook chat or this Google hangout may not have the millions and millions of viewers that traditional television might have on the State of the Union night, it does act as a megaphone, because then it drives the conversation for every blogger, for every correspondent, for every website out there.

　　CHRISTINA BELLANTONI:Yes.

　　Well, and looking at this, you know, FDR was sort of the example of these radio chats. His first one got 35 million. As many as 54 million heard the height of them. Now, how many people are actually watching after the fact when it's clipped on YouTube? The White House is using this to spread their own message?

　　HOWARD KURTZ:It's hard to measure. But, clearly, it is a fraction of what Franklin Roosevelt could reach with using the mass medium of the day.

　　This is not mass media. If Obama wants to reach—if President Obama wants to reach the most Americans that he can, he will go on television and use that bully¹⁶ pulpit. This is narrow-casting to people who might not ordinarily be viewers of the evening news and a way to communicate directly with folks without having to go through the press.

　　LAUREN ASHBURN:When I give speeches about social media, the one thing that I say is that this is a way to reach an audience, to reach other people that you wouldn't normally reach.

　　CHRISTINA BELLANTONI:Well, we will leave it there. Thank you very much.

　　We'd like your thoughts on the evolution of White House communication. Did you watch the Google Hangout? What would you ask the president if you had a chance? Weigh in at NewsHour.PBS.org.

1 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

2 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

3 relishes   

n.滋味( relish的名词复数 )；乐趣；（大量的）享受；快乐v.欣赏( relish的第三人称单数 )；从…获得乐趣；渴望

参考例句：

• The meat relishes of pork. 这肉有猪肉味。 来自辞典例句
• The biography relishes too much of romance. 这篇传记中传奇色彩太浓。 来自辞典例句

4 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

5 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

6 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。

7 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

8 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

9 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

10 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。

11 circumvent   

vt.环绕，包围；对…用计取胜，智胜

参考例句：

• Military planners tried to circumvent the treaty.军事策略家们企图绕开这一条约。
• Any action I took to circumvent his scheme was justified.我为斗赢他的如意算盘而采取的任何行动都是正当的。

12 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

13 bristled   

adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• They bristled at his denigrating description of their activities. 听到他在污蔑他们的活动，他们都怒发冲冠。
• All of us bristled at the lawyer's speech insulting our forefathers. 听到那个律师在讲演中污蔑我们的祖先，大家都气得怒发冲冠。

14 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

15 vociferous   

adj.喧哗的，大叫大嚷的

参考例句：

• They are holding a vociferous debate.他们在吵吵嚷嚷地辩论。
• He was a vociferous opponent of Conservatism.他高声反对保守主义。

16 bully   

n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮

参考例句：

• A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
• The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。