乔治•奥斯本的“新闻复仇战”
乔治•奥斯本(George Osborne)在《旗帜晚报》(Evening Standard)新办公桌的显眼位置上，摆着他担任主编首日该报的头版。头条标题上写着，《布鲁塞尔落井下石》(Brussels twists the knife)，反映了特里萨•梅(Theresa May)与欧盟的英国脱欧谈判陷入混乱。
Six weeks on and following a disastrous election for the prime minister, who unceremoniously dumped Mr Osborne in the wake of Brexit, it is the former chancellor who has been turning the knife, using the platform of one of Westminster’s most widely read papers to exact his revenge.
6周过去了，脱欧公投后毫不客气地炒掉了奥斯本的梅也已经历了一场灾难性的大选，现在是这位前财政大臣在落井下石，利用英国政府中阅读最广泛的报纸之一作为平台，实施自己的复仇。
“A dead woman walking,” was how Mr Osborne described Mrs May on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show last Sunday, as the prime minister attempted to tie up a deal with the DUP, a unionist party in Northern Ireland, to secure a parliamentary majority.
“一具仍在行走的女尸”，不久前奥斯本在英国广播公司(BBC)《安德鲁•马尔秀》(Andrew Marr Show)上如是形容梅，这位首相正试图与北爱的民主联盟党(DUP)达成协议，以使她能在下议院获得多数议席。
With rival papers full of stories of Tory plotting against Mrs May, how long does he think she can hold on?
对手报纸满篇都在讲保守党密谋反对梅，那么他认为她能坚持多久呢?
“She is now very weak at a time when the country needs leadership,” Mr Osborne said in his first newspaper interview since taking up the new role.
奥斯本在履新后首次接受报纸采访时表示：“眼下正是国家需要领导的时候，而她现在极端无力。”
“It’s either up to her to demonstrate that she can provide that leadership or someone else will. You do, at the moment, have this government that is in office but not in power.”
“要么她自己证明她能提供这种领导力，要么别人会证明。目前这届政府虽然在位，但并不当权。”
There is no mistaking that Mr Osborne is relishing his new life in newspapers. While the FT awaits his return from the newsroom, where he is just sending the day’s first edition, one journalist brings in proofs of next week’s magazine for the editor’s approval.
毫无疑问，奥斯本在报界焕发新生。当英国《金融时报》记者等候他从新闻编辑室返回时——他在那里发送当日报纸的第一版——一位记者拿来了请他批准的下周杂志的校样。
When Mr Osborne arrives, he proudly displays that day’s front page on his smartphone, which carries details of the £2m the paper has raised for victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.
奥斯本回来时，自豪地用自己的智能手机展示了当天的头版，上面刊登了该报为格伦费尔大楼(Grenfell Tower)火灾受害者筹集的200万英镑的详情。
“An amazing response,” he says, adding: “The Evening Standard has a role as the paper of the city and has the ability to bring the city together in moments of tragedy.”
他说：“多么惊人的响应。《旗帜晚报》身为这座城市的报纸，有能力在悲剧时刻将这座城市团结起来。”
But after a life spent in politics, many critics argue the man once tipped to take over from former prime minister David Cameron at Number 10, is bending one of the country’s great newspapers to his own political will.
许多评论家认为奥斯本一度有望从前首相戴维•卡梅伦(David Cameron)手里接过唐宁街10号。但经过一段政坛生涯后，这个男人正让英国最伟大的报纸之一服从于其个人政治意愿。
An analysis by the newspaper industry’s weekly magazine Press Gazette found that in Mr Osborne’s first month in charge the paper’s front page was overwhelmingly negative about the Tories. The magazine’s editor, Dominic Ponsford, nevertheless concluded that it has made “compulsive reading”.
据报刊行业周刊《Press Gazette》分析发现，奥斯本接手《旗帜晚报》后的第一个月，其头版充斥着关于保守派的负面报道。《Press Gazette》主编多米尼克•邦斯福德(Dominic Ponsford)认为这是“强制阅读”。
So, is he just out for revenge?
那么他只是为了复仇吗?
“I’m trying to edit this paper as the editor of the Evening Standard not as the ex-chancellor of the exchequer,” he replies diplomatically. “I actually voted for Theresa May to be leader of the Conservative party.”
奥斯本回以外交辞令：“我正努力以《旗帜晚报》主编的身份、而不是前财政大臣的身份编辑这份报纸。实际上我投票支持了特里萨•梅担任保守党领导人。”
But one only needs to read the scathing series of leader columns the Standard has published throughout the election and its aftermath to understand Mr Osborne’s views.
但人们只要读过《旗帜晚报》社评专栏在整个大选期间以及之后发表的尖锐点评，就能了解奥斯本的观点。
A week before polling day, the paper launched a devastating attack on the Conservative campaign, arguing it had “meandered from an abortive attempt to launch a personality cult around Mrs May to the self-inflicted wound of the most disastrous manifesto in recent history”.
在投票日前一周，《旗帜晚报》对保守党阵营发起了猛烈攻击，称对方“先是企图发起对梅的个人崇拜，失败后又发表了近期历史上最灾难性的宣言，不啻于自残。”
“The leaders are a team effort,” he says, with a mischievous smile. “But let’s say I am taking a close interest.” The former chancellor has also become a prolific tweeter, rallying his following of 214,000 to promote the paper’s front pages and articles.
奥斯本狡黠地笑道：“这些社评文章是团队的结晶。但可以说我非常关注。”这位前财政大臣也成了个多产的Twitter发帖者，利用他的21.4万名关注者推广《旗帜晚报》的头版及内容文章。
Is he responsible for everything that’s posted? “Oh, yes. No one else is allowed near my Twitter account. That would be inviting a disaster.”
他对发布的所有内容负责吗?“噢，是的。我的Twitter账户不允许任何人插手。否则将招致一场灾难。”
Mr Osborne’s abrupt career move in March — he was still an MP for Tatton at the time and only stood down once the snap election was called — startled both Fleet Street and Westminister. Journalists sniped that he would be exposed by his lack of editorial experience.
奥斯本今年3月突如其来的职业变动——他当时仍是塔顿(Tatton)选区议员，只是在梅宣布提前选举后才去职——震惊了舰队街(Fleet Street，英国新闻界的代称——译者注)和威斯敏斯特。记者们冷言冷语地表示，缺乏编辑经验很快将让他出丑。
He now confesses to having had doubts.
现在，他承认自己有过怀疑。
“When I turned up at the beginning of May I didn’t really know if this was going to work for me and work for the newspaper,” he says. “I confidently asserted I could do the job but I didn’t know. And I didn’t know if I was going to enjoy it or feel if I had made a wrong move.
“当我在5月初来到这里的时候，我不确定自己能不能行，能否为这份报纸效力，”他说，“我自信地声称能胜任这份工作，但实际上我并不知道。我不知道自己将会享受这份工作，还是会觉得自己做了错误之举。”
“Within 24 hours I was thinking I had definitely done the right thing. I was not ready aged 46, to just sort of retire or live off the fact I was the ex-chancellor or spend the rest of my life giving speeches about what I did when I was 40 years old.”
“不到24小时，我就觉得自己绝对是做了正确的事。我才46岁，还没有准备好退休，或是依靠自己曾担任过财政大臣这件事为生，或者在余生中发表演讲，讲述我在40岁时做了些什么。”
Still, Mr Osborne is not ruling out a political comeback: “It was odd covering it [the election] from a newsroom. Having run two general elections, I was conscious of this; ‘do I want to be there on the podium?’
然而，奥斯本并没有排除在政治上东山再起：“在新闻编辑室报道它(大选)有点怪怪的。在参加过两次大选之后，我意识到这一点;‘我真的想呆在政治舞台上吗?’”
“I reflected; ‘no I don’t’. So I don’t miss it, I don’t yearn for it, I’m not looking for a return. I don’t rule it out but that’s more because I think it’s silly to say you will never do something in the future.”
“我开始反思;‘不，我不想’。所以，我不怀念，我不渴望，也不期待回归。我不排除回归的可能，但这更多是因为我认为，说自己未来永远不会做某事很傻。”
But with newspapers facing an uncertain future as readers and advertisers shift online, even a Westminster career might be a safer bet.
但随着读者和广告商转向网络，报纸正面临着不确定的未来，即使留在威斯敏斯特从政或许都是一个更保险的赌注。
Mr Osborne says he “has a pretty stable budget” and that the Standard, which is handed out free across the capital and almost entirely reliant on print advertising revenues, is “bucking the trend”. Since Mr Osborne took charge circulation has increased by nearly 3 per cent to over 900,000 a day.
奥斯本表示，他“有一份相当稳定的预算”，而且《旗帜晚报》——在整个首都免费发放，几乎完全依赖印刷广告收入——正“逆势而上”。自奥斯本上任以来，日发行量增加了近3%，至90多万份。
While his arrival has energised the newspaper, the jump in readers may also reflect an extraordinary run of big news stories — including the election, two terror attacks and the Grenfell Tower disaster.
虽然他的到来给这份报纸带来了活力，但读者的激增或许还是因为该报对大新闻事件的密集报道，包括此次大选、两次恐怖袭击和格伦费尔大楼火灾。
The concerns about Mr Osborne’s politics and conflicts of interest (he remains a £650,000 a year adviser to BlackRock, the asset management firm) are likely to persist. So, too, will his insistence that he is studiously determined to edit the paper for its readers and in line with his liberally open and business-friendly values.
对奥斯本的政治活动及利益冲突的担忧(他仍担任资产管理公司贝莱德(BlackRock)的顾问，年薪65万英镑)很可能会一直存在。同样，他很可能会一直坚称，他将坚决按照他秉持的自由开放和商业友好的价值观为读者编辑报纸。
“I don’t want the Evening Standard to be a nasty paper,” he says. “It doesn’t have to be vindictive or personal or unpleasant about individuals. You are not going to get pictures of celebrities with cellulite on the beach.”
“我不希望《旗帜晚报》变成一份令人讨厌的报纸，”他说，“不需要报复，个人化，或是对谁不满。你不会看到社会名流在海滩暴露脂肪的照片。”
