VOA标准英语2014--'Kill the Messenger' Puts Integrity of US Media in Question

 

'Kill the Messenger' Puts Integrity of US Media in Question

The journalistic integrity of U.S. media; an illicitly-financed, CIA-backed war against Nicaraguan Sandinistas; the crack epidemic¹ of 1980's urban America: these are the main subjects of Michael Cuesta’s "Kill the Messenger."

In the film, Oscar nominee² Jeremy Renner portrays³ Gary Webb, the real life San Jose Mercury News reporter who is warned against publishing information that proves the CIA turned a blind eye while its Nicaraguan allies, the Contras, smuggled⁴ cocaine⁵ into the U.S. to fund their war against the country's Sandinista government.

Defiant⁶ in the face of threats, Webb publishes a three-part series called "The Dark Alliance," writing not only about the well-known connection between the CIA and the drug traffickers, but alleging⁷ their large-scale smuggling⁸ operation had fueled the crack epidemic in predominantly African-American communities in some U.S. cities.

From there, says Renner, Webb’s life unravels⁹.

“Big interests, big media getting scooped¹⁰, making Gary the story or discrediting¹² him or tearing the story apart, versus¹³ furthering the journalism¹⁴, which is shame and travesty¹⁵, if you ask me,” he said.

The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, which had not given the CIA-Contra connection much coverage¹⁶ in the 80s, dismissed Webb’s conclusions about the crack epidemic as speculative¹⁷.

Eventually, his own paper backed down.

Renner calls it a typical David versus Goliath story — only this time, Goliath wins.

“Not to discredit¹¹ the San Jose Mercury News," he said, "I just think the whole story became much bigger than any of them was ever used to, and [they] didn’t know how to handle it ... except Gary, who just needed more support to go and dig and find more truth.”

Investigative reporter Robert Parry, who was the first to break the CIA-Contra story for the Associated Press in 1985, agrees.

“Webb did something that was very important that we did not do,” he said. “We had focused on the Contra movement and the importation of drugs throughout Central America into the United States. What Webb did was look at what happened when the drugs got here.”

According to Cuesta, Webb did not have direct evidence that linked Contra drug trafficking to the crack epidemic.

“It wasn’t nuanced enough," he said. "It was easy for the other papers to find flaws in it.”

But Parry says Webb’s reporting had substantial merit of another very important kind: he and the black caucus¹⁸ finally forced the CIA to investigate a drug epidemic they helped to create.

In 1998, Inspector¹⁹ General Frederick Hitz released a report connecting the CIA directly to the Contras’ drug trafficking operations.

But, according to Parry, Webb's reporting ultimately fell prey²⁰ to bad timing²¹. Published in the mid-1990s, he says, the story surfaced while large U.S. media outlets²² paid more attention to the Monica Lewinsky scandal than the hardships of crack-ravaged U.S. communities of a prior decade.

"The press was more fascinated by the president’s sex life than they were about whether or not the CIA had been involved with drug traffickers back in the 1980s," he said.

By the time the Hitz report came out, Webb’s career had been destroyed. He committed suicide in 2004.

Cuesta hopes his film will renew the conversation about the integrity of the press.

“If you call it a movie about indicting²³ any particular establishment like the government, I think it’s more about media," he said.

Parry agrees.

“The media should take this movie as an opportunity to reassess what it did," he said. "This was a terrible action by the major news organizations. And they should look at themselves and say ‘was our behavior proper?’ And I think if they did that they would have to admit that honestly it wasn’t. That instead of advancing a major story on a major scandal, they helped suppress the story about a major scandal. That’s the opposite of what American people expect of their news media.”

1 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

2 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

3 portrays   

v.画像( portray的第三人称单数 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The museum collection vividly portrays the heritage of 200 years of canals. 博物馆的藏品让运河200 年的历史再现眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The film portrays Gandhi as a kind of superman. 这部电影把甘地描绘成一个超人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 smuggled   

水货

参考例句：

• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Those smuggled goods have been detained by the port office. 那些走私货物被港务局扣押了。 来自互联网

5 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

6 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。

7 alleging   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• His reputation was blemished by a newspaper article alleging he'd evaded his taxes. 由于报上一篇文章声称他曾逃税，他的名誉受到损害。
• This our Peeress declined as unnecessary, alleging that her cousin Thornhill's recommendation would be sufficient. 那位贵人不肯，还说不必，只要有她老表唐希尔保荐就够了。

8 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

9 unravels   

解开，拆散，散开( unravel的第三人称单数 )； 阐明； 澄清； 弄清楚

参考例句：

• Khrushchev's Cold War unravels the tangled contradictions in his leadership of the Communist Party. 赫鲁晓夫的冷战》这本书揭示出赫鲁晓夫作为共产党的领袖，面临着一些棘手的问题。

10 scooped   

v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等）

参考例句：

• They scooped the other newspapers by revealing the matter. 他们抢先报道了这件事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块，在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 discredit   

vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑

参考例句：

• Their behaviour has bought discredit on English football.他们的行为败坏了英国足球运动的声誉。
• They no longer try to discredit the technology itself.他们不再试图怀疑这种技术本身。

12 discrediting   

使不相信( discredit的现在分词 )； 使怀疑； 败坏…的名声； 拒绝相信

参考例句：

• It has also led to the discrediting of mainstream macroeconomics. 它还使得人们对主流宏观经济学产生了怀疑。

13 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

14 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。

15 travesty   

n.歪曲，嘲弄，滑稽化

参考例句：

• The trial was a travesty of justice.这次审判嘲弄了法律的公正性。
• The play was,in their view,a travesty of the truth.这个剧本在他们看来是对事实的歪曲。

16 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。

17 speculative   

adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的

参考例句：

• Much of our information is speculative.我们的许多信息是带推测性的。
• The report is highly speculative and should be ignored.那个报道推测的成分很大，不应理会。

18 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

19 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

20 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

21 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。

22 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

23 indicting   

控告，起诉( indict的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• But Moreno-Ocampo stressed he was not indicting President Bashir. 但是奥坎波强调，他并不是在起诉巴希尔总统。
• He says that indicting the journalists is just another move at Washington. 尹德民说，起诉这两名记者就是针对华盛顿的另一个行动。