[2010.9.11] The Coulson affair 库尔森丑闻 - 欧洲 Eur...

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David Cameron’s media man faces more embarrassing questions about his previous life

大卫•卡梅隆的媒体联络官之前的工作使他面临着更多的困窘问题。

Sep 9th 2010    2010年9月9日
IT IS hard to imagine that becoming David Cameron’s head of communications, as Andy Coulson did when he joined the Conservative leader’s team in 2007, could be considered a sideways career move. Yet measured by influence, prestige and salary, his previous job as editor of the News of the World was at least as grand. The Sunday tabloid is one of the world’s biggest-selling English-language newspapers.
安迪•库尔森2007年进入保守党领导团队并成为大卫•卡梅隆的首席新闻官，很难想像这会被认为是他职业生涯的一步错棋。然而，无论从影响力，威望和薪水上来衡量，库尔森以前作为世界新闻报的编辑至少是很不错的。世界新闻报是世界上销售量最多的英语报纸之一。
But Mr Coulson’s tenure there was the source of immense controversy, which still dogs him and the government for which he now works. Even by the standards of British tabloids—including the Sun, also owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International—the News of the World was and remains tenacious in digging out sensational stories, preferably involving public figures (broadly defined). As became clear at a criminal trial in 2007, the methods its reporters use have on occasion included the illegal hacking of mobile-phone messages, for which Clive Goodman, the paper’s royal editor, was jailed, along with a private investigator who had helped him.
但是库尔森先生在世界新闻报的工作一直存在着巨大的争议，这种争议仍然困扰着他和他现在所供职的政府。即使根据英国报业――包括同属于鲁伯特•默多克国际新闻集团旗下的太阳报――的行业标准，世界新闻报以前并且现在仍然对挖掘敏感新闻很谨慎，尤其是有关公众人物（对公众人物有明确的定义）的新闻。随着2007年一起犯罪案件逐渐清晰，世界新闻报的记者在采访中有时也会采用非法手段窃听手机信息，也正因为如此，该报负责报道皇家新闻的编辑克莱夫-古德曼被关进了监狱，同他一起被抓的还有曾帮助过他的私人侦探。
At the time Mr Coulson resigned the editorship but denied knowing that such activities were happening on his watch. Mr Cameron hired him four months later. Soon after the trial Les Hinton, then executive chairman of News International, insisted to a parliamentary committee that Mr Goodman was the only person at the paper who knew of the hacking.
那是库尔森先生已经辞职了，他否认在即在职时知道这些事情。四个月后卡梅隆任命他为首席新闻官。在莱丝•星顿案后不久，国际新闻集团的执行主席对议会委员会坚持称，古德曼先生时记录在案的唯一一个知道这件事的人。
Many people doubted these denials. If only one rogue journalist had been involved in such illegal activity, his editor might plausibly have known nothing. But there were indications that the problem was more widespread. In the course of its investigation in 2006 the Metropolitan Police alerted several other high-profile people that they had been victims of phone-hacking. Some eventually accepted out-of-court settlements from the News of the World. Last year the Guardian, a left-leaning broadsheet, alleged that phone-hacking was rife at the paper, and that the victims included cabinet ministers and celebrities. Again, Mr Coulson denied knowing about this while he was editor.
很多人对这些否认都很怀疑。如果只有单独的一个记者做了这种违法的事，那么他的编辑什么都不知道似乎也可以理解，但是有证据显示这个问题涉及面要更广一些，绝不仅仅只有一名记者这样做。在2006年的调查过程中，伦敦警察曾警告过一些名人，他们已经成为了电话窃听的受害者。其中一些最终接收了世界新闻报的庭外和解。去年，一份左翼报纸卫报声称，电话窃听在世界新闻报中很流行，受害者包括内阁部长和一些名人。库尔森再一次否认自己做编辑时知道这件事情。
The scandal had seemed to fade over the past year. Mr Coulson was duly made Downing Street’s director of communications after Mr Cameron became prime minister in May. Then on September 1st the New York Times published a detailed investigation of Mr Coulson’s stint as a tabloid editor. It described how the alleged hacking was arranged and quoted various former employees of the News of the World who insisted that Mr Coulson knew about it. One, Sean Hoare, said the editor had “actively encouraged” him to hack phones. Once again, Mr Coulson denied this, declaring himself happy to answer any questions the police may have. After a furore in Parliament, John Yates, an assistant commissioner of the Met, said his force would be speaking to Mr Coulson. On September 9th another former journalist said in the Guardian that Mr Coulson was “well aware” of the hacking.
去年这个丑闻似乎逐渐销声匿迹了。在五月份卡梅隆现正就认首相后，库尔森先生也正式成为了唐宁街的新闻官。9月1日，纽约时报发布了一份库尔森当编辑时的详细调查报告，这份报告描述了所谓的窃听是怎样实施的，并且报告中还引用了一些世界新闻报的前雇员的证词，他们都坚持认为库尔森知道这件事。其中一个人，肖恩•霍尔说，编辑曾积极鼓励他去窃听电话。库尔森又一次否认了这种说法，并称自己乐意回答警察询问的任何问题。在议会激烈争论后，伦敦警察局的一名助理长官说，他的警员会询问库尔森先生。9月9日，另一名前卫报的记者称库尔森非常了解窃听事件。
The Met has its own reputation to consider. The initial police inquiry was seen by some as too narrow. Some News of the World journalists seem not to have been investigated. The police also chose not to alert many of the possible phone-hacking targets, and, according to the New York Times, may have failed to share some important information with the Crown Prosecution Service. Defenders of the police argue that, for all the current excitement, very little new evidence has emerged that would stand up in a criminal trial.
伦敦警察也要顾及自己声誉。一些人认为警察起初询问的范围太窄了。有一些世界新闻报的记者都没有被调查，同时警察也有意没警告那些可能的被窃听目标。据纽约时报称，这样警察局就不能与英国皇家检控署分享一些重要信息。警察的辩护者称，就目前所有的线索而言，还没有出现有力的新证据。
Still, Mr Coulson is a bigger target than the Met, at least for opposition politicians. Even if it is difficult to prove that he knew about the hacking, he has broken every spin doctor’s golden rule: never become the story. It is not unheard-of for Downing Street officials to be questioned by the police: Tony Blair and some of his aides were quizzed about allegations that major donors to the Labour Party were rewarded with peerages. But Mr Coulson is awkwardly responsible for handling the media that are now salivating over his past.
然而，同伦敦警察相比，库尔森仍然是一个更大的目标，至少对反对党来说是这样的。即使很难证明他知道窃听事件，他也已经违反了每一个媒体顾问的黄金准则：绝不成为事件的主角。唐宁街官员被警察询问的事情也并不鲜于耳闻：警察曾询问托尼•布莱尔和他的助手们关于工党主要捐赠人被授予贵族爵位的问题。但困难的是库尔森要负责与媒体打交道，而如今这些媒体对他的过去垂涎三尺。
He is also one of the quartet at the summit of the Tory party, along with Mr Cameron, George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, and Steve Hilton, the party’s strategist. His influence has been earned in two ways. First, through sheer ability. Mr Coulson has long been regarded by many insiders as the most effective member of Mr Cameron’s back-room team. His prowess as a spin doctor and links with the Murdoch empire are said to be matched by a gift for political strategy.
库尔森也是保守党的四大高层之一，其他三人是：卡梅隆先生，财政大臣乔治•奥斯本，和保守党战略家斯蒂文•赫尔顿。他通过两种方式获得了自己的影响力。第一，完全通过能力。很多内部人士长期以来一直认为库尔森是卡梅隆幕后团队中最有效率的成员。据说作为一名首相媒体顾问的高超技巧和他与默多克集团的联系时他政治战略中的优势。
Second, through his humble personal background, and the world view it has given him. For all the talk about Britain’s class war being over, Mr Cameron’s poshness—and that of many in his team—has been a political problem. He has never bonded with the striving classes in the way Margaret Thatcher, or indeed Mr Blair, did. Mr Coulson, the product of an Essex comprehensive school, has a feel for the popular mood. Many Tories believe they would have won the general election outright had Mr Coulson run the campaign himself.
第二，通过它贫苦的出身，全世界都认为这成就了他。尽管所有有关英国阶级斗争的谈论已经结束，但卡梅隆和他许多团队成员都来自上等阶层，这就成了一种政治问题。卡梅隆从来没有像玛格丽特•撒切尔和布莱尔那样同中下层阶级紧密联系起来。毕业于埃塞克斯综合学校的库尔森先生更受大众欢迎。许多保守党人相信如果库尔森自己参加选举，他们可能马上赢得大选。
His allies make much of the fact that Mr Hoare was dismissed from the News of the World over a drink and drug problem, and that the New York Times is fighting a commercial war with Mr Murdoch, who owns its rival, the Wall Street Journal. Mr Coulson’s critics point to the terseness of the coverage of these developments in the wider Murdoch press, and accuse the police and other authorities of being reluctant to offend the Murdoch machine.
他的盟友们非常重视这两件事情。第一，霍尔先生是因为喝酒和吸毒才被世界新闻报解雇的；第二，纽约时报正在和默多克先生打一场商业战，而默多克正是纽约时报的竞争对手华尔街日报的所有者。库尔森的批评者指出默多克新闻集团对这些进展的报道都很精炼，并且指控警察和其他权威不愿意得罪默多克集团。
The government’s opponents want Mr Coulson’s head, even though he has not conclusively been shown to have lied about his behaviour in his previous job. His friends point out that he has already resigned one plum role over the affair. And Mr Cameron knew about his past when he hired him: “I believe in giving people a second chance,” he said last year.
政府的反对者都想置库尔森于死地，即使还没有确凿的证据显示他在撒谎。他的朋友指出由于这件事他已经辞掉了一份很好的工作。而且卡梅隆在任命他时知道他的过去，他去年说：“我相信应该给人们一次机会”
Indeed, the ultimate danger of this scandal for the government may be the doubts it raises over the prime minister’s judgment. This is not, after all, an isolated case. For years Mr Cameron failed to clarify the tax status of Lord Ashcroft, a controversial Tory donor who eventually admitted that he had been non-domiciled in Britain for tax purposes (but said he would change this to remain in the House of Lords). One such failing may be forgivable. Two begin to look like a pattern.
其实，这个丑闻对政府来说最大的危险在于它让人们开始怀疑首相的判断力了。毕竟，这不是一个单独的事件。卡梅隆先生很久以来都没有澄清阿什克罗夫特勋爵的税务状况，阿什克罗夫特勋爵是一名饱受争议的保守党捐赠人，他最终承认为了逃税他一直没有在伦敦定居（但是他说自己将改变这种做法以保留在上议院的席位）。卡梅隆犯一次这样的错误是可以原谅的，但两次看起来就像故意的了。
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