Lesson Six

Section One: News in Brief

1. The Senate has voted to override President Reagan's veto of sanctions against South Africa by a decisive seventy-eight to twenty-one. As the House has already voted to override, the sanctions now become law. NPR's Linda Wertheimer reports.

'American civil rights leaders, including Mrs. Caretta Scott King, watched the Senate debate from the Senate family gallery as members argued not so much about sanctions and the efficacy of sanctions, more about the choice between affirming the bill already passed by Congress or supporting the President.'

2. American food aid to southern African countries could be cut off if South Africa carries out its threat to ban imports of US grain. Foreign Minister Pic Botha said if US sanctions were imposed, his government would stop imports and would not allow its transport service to carry US grain to neighboring countries.

3. The White House today denied that it planted misleading stories in the American news media as part of a plan to topple Libyan leader Muammar Quddafi. The Washington Post reported this morning that stories were leaked this summer alleging Quddafi was resuming his support for terrorist activities, even though National Security Adviser John Poindexter knew otherwise. Today, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Poindexter denied the administration had involved the media in an anti-Quddafi campaign but Speakes left open the possibility a disinformation campaign was conducted in other countries.

第一节 简明新闻

1. 参议院投票以决定性的 78 票对 21 票推翻了里根总统对南非制裁的否决权。由于众议院已经投票推翻了，现在对其制裁成为法律。全国公共电台的琳达威特海默报道。

“美国民权领袖们，包括科瑞塔斯科特金夫人，参观了参议院有争议的参议院家庭画廊，议员们争论的不是制裁本身而是制裁的效果。更多的有关的选择问题是在法案已在国会获得通过和得到总统的支持之间。”

2. 如果南非实施其威胁而禁止进口美国的谷物的话，美国对南部非洲国家的粮食援助可能被切断。外交部长匹克图博塔说，如果美国实施制裁，他的政府将停止进口同时也不会允许其向他的邻国运输美国谷物。
3. 白宫今天否认了美国新闻媒体编造的虚幻报道作为推翻利比亚领导人卡扎菲计划的一部分。据华盛顿邮报今天早上报道，有披露今年夏天是指称卡扎菲正在恢复他对恐怖活动的支持，尽管国家安全顾问约翰波因德克斯特知道并非如此。今天，白宫发言人拉里斯皮克斯说，波因德克斯特否认政府曾将媒体卷入一次反卡扎菲的活动当中，但斯皮克斯公开表示可能有一次虚假宣传正在其他一些国家进行。

Section Two: News in Detail

The question in Washington today is this: Did the federal government try to scare Libya 's Colonel Muammar Quddafi in August by way of a disinformation campaign in the American media? The 'Washington Post Bob Woodward reports today that there was an elaborate disinformation program set up by the White House to convince Quddafi that the United States was about to attack again, or that he might be ousted in a coup. The White House today denies that officials tried to mislead Quddafi by using the American media. NPR's Bill Busenburg has our first report on the controversy.
The story starts on August 25th when the Wall Street Journal ran a front page story saying that Libya and the United States were once again on a collision course. Quoting multiple official sources, the paper said Quddafi was plotting new terrorist attacks and the Reagan Administration was preparing to teach him another lesson.
The Journal reported that the Pentagon was completing plans for a new and wider bombing of Libya in case the President ordered it.
That story caused a flurry of press attention. Officials in Washington and at the western White House in California were asked if it was true. "The story was authoritative" said the White House spokesman Larry Speakes. Based on that official confirmation, other news organizations, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR and the major TV networks, all ran stories suggesting Libya should watch out. US naval maneuvers then taking place in the Mediterranean might be used as a cover for more attacks on Libya as in the past.
Today's Washington Post, however, quotes from an August 14th secret White House plan, adopted eleven days before the Wall Street Journal story. It was outlined in a memo written by the President's National Security Advisor John Poindexter. That plan called for a strategy of real and illusory events, using a disinformation program to make Quddafi think the United States was about to move against him militarily. Here are some examples the Post cites, suggesting disinformation was used domestically: Number one, while some US officials told the press Quddafi was stepping up his terrorist plans, President Reagan was being told in a memo that Quddafi was temporarily quiescent, in other words, that he wasn't active. Number two, while some officials were telling the press of internal infighting in Libya to oust Quddafi , US officials really believed he was firmly in power and that CIA's efforts to oust him were not working. Number three, while officials were telling the press the Pentagon was planning new attacks, in fact nothing new was being done Existing contingency plans were several months old, and the naval maneuvers were just maneuvers. The Post says this policy of deception was approved at a National Security Planning Group meeting chaired by President Reagan and his top aides.

第二节 详细新闻 白宫涉嫌向美国媒体散布假消息以欺骗利比亚

在华盛顿今天的问题是：联邦政府是否曾经试图在 8 月份通过美国媒体进行虚假宣传活动来威吓利比亚的卡扎菲上校？《华盛顿邮报》的鲍勃伍德沃德今天报道说，有一项详细的虚假宣传计划正由白宫进行编造，为使卡扎菲信服美国正准备发起再次的进攻，或者说他可能在政变中被推翻。白宫官员今天否认了试图利用美国媒体误导卡扎菲。全国公共广播公司的比尔布森博格首先给我们报道争议情况。
事情始于 8 月 25 日，《华尔街日报》刊登的头版报道说，利比亚和美国将再一次发生冲突事件。该报还引述多个官方消息来源说，卡扎菲正在策划新的恐怖袭击，而里根政府正准备给他新一轮的教训。
《华尔街日报》报道说，五角大楼的正在着手一项计划，总统下令进行新一轮的和更加广泛的针对利比亚的轰炸。
这个故事引起了记者紧张的关注。华盛顿官员和西部白宫加利福尼亚州被问及是否是真实的。 “ 这件事是具有权威性的 ” ，白宫发言人拉里斯皮克斯这样说。基于官方的确认，其他新闻机构包括《纽约时报》，《华盛顿邮报》，全国公共广播电台，以及主要电视网络都报道此事并暗示利比亚应该留意。美国海军当时正在地中海举行军事演习可能被用来掩盖对利比亚发动更多的袭击，就像过去一样。
今天的《华盛顿邮报》，援引一项来自 8 月 14 日白宫的秘密计划，采用了 11 天前《华尔街日报》的报道。它概述了由总统国家安全顾问约翰波因德克斯特起草的一份备忘录。该计划建议实施一个真正的战略行的真实的虚幻事件，使用虚假的计划，使卡扎菲认为美国正准备采取打击他的军事行动。这里有一些邮报引述的例子，建议虚假消息应在国内传播：第一，当一些美国官员对新闻界谈到卡扎菲正在加紧他的恐怖计划，里根总统在一份备忘录中被告知，卡扎菲暂时平静了下来，换言之，他不那么活跃了。第二，当一些官员对新闻界谈到了在利比亚的驱逐卡扎菲的内斗，美国官员真的相信他掌握着牢固的权力，中情局试图把他赶下台的努力是不奏效的。 第三，而官员告诉记者，五角大楼正在策划新的袭击，其实根本没有新制定的计划，存在的应急计划也有数月之久了，而且海军的演习只是演习。《华盛顿邮报》称，这项欺骗政策是由里根总统和他的高级助手在主持国家安全规划小组会议上批准。

Libya 's Colonel Muammar Quddafi（1942-）

Section Three: Special Report

Two new studies were published today on the links between television coverage of suicide and subsequent teenage suicide rates. The Now England Journal of Medicine reports that both studies suggest that some teenagers might be more likely to take their own lives after seeing TV programs dealing with suicide. NPR's Lorie Garrett reports.

The first suicide study, done by a team from the University of California in San Diego , examines television news coverage of suicides. David Philips and Lundy Carseson looked at forty-five suicide stories carried on network news-casts between 1973 and '79.

The researchers then compared the incidence of teen suicides in those years to the dates of broadcast of these stories. David Philips says news coverage of suicides definitely prompted an increase in the number of teens in America who took their lives.

“The more TV programs that carry a story, the greater they increase in teen suicides just afterwards.”

The suicide increase among teens was compared by Philips to adult suicide trends.

'The teen suicides go up by about 2.91 teen suicides per story. And adult suicides go up by, I think, around two adult suicides per story. The increase for teens, the percentage increase for teens is very, very much larger than the percentage increase for adults. It's about, I think, fourteen or fifteen times as big a response for teens percentagewise as it is for adults.'

The TV news coverage appears to have prompted a greater in crease than is seen around other well-known periods of adolescent depression, such as holidays, personal birthdays, the start of school and winter. Philips could not find any specific types of stories that seem to trigger a greater response among depressed teens. Philips says it seems to simply be the word "suicide' and the knowledge that somebody actively executed the act that pushes buttons in depressed teenagers. Psychiatrists call this 'imitative behavior.'

"What my study showed was that there seems to be imitation not only of relatively bland behavior like dress, dressing or hairstyles, but there seems to be imitation of really quite deviant behavior as well. The teenagers imitate apparently across the board, not just suicides, but everything else as well.'

In a separate study, Madeline Gould and David Shaeffer of Columbia University found that made-for-television movies about suicide also stimulated imitative behavior. Even though the movies were intended to portray the problem of teen suicide and offered, in some cases, suicide hot line numbers and advice on counseling, the team believes the four network movies prompted eighty teen suicides. One of the made-for-TV movies examined by the Columbia University team was a CBS production. George Schweitzer, a CBS's Vice President, is well aware of this research. He says, 'It is terribly unfortunate that any teens took their lives after the broadcast, but if they had it to do over,' says Schweitzer, 'CBS would still run the movie."

"Studies like these do not measure the most, what we think is the most important thing, which I don't think can be measured, and that is the hundreds and hundreds and probably thousands of teenagers who were positively moved by these kinds of broadcasts."

Moved to call suicide hot lines, moved to seek counseling, and moved to discuss their depressions with family members. Schweitzer does not dispute today's studies: some teens may be moved to suicide.

“But ignoring the issue for fear of that, I think, would be far more disastrous than addressing important social issues to help create awareness and again to have a positive effect.”

But researcher David Philips suggests the media could decrease the teen suicide problem by avoiding some suicide stories all together and changing the way the others are covered. For example, says Philips, "Don't make suicide seem heroic." He cites the story of 'a' Young Czechoslovakian dissident who set himself on fire. But the dissident action was taken to draw attention to government repression in Czechoslovakia . Should the news media really have ignored such a story? 'I think it's a really difficult question. There are all these goods on all sides of the issue. And thank God, I don't have to be the one to disentangle that issue.'

One prominent expert in this field said the young people moved to take their lives, following a news story or movie, are particularly vulnerable, suicidal individuals. In the absence of television stories, some other events in their lives might well have triggered their actions. So while most psychiatrists agree there is an imitative component to teenage suicides, that tendency, they say, should not lead society to repress information. On the contrary, some say we are now facing a major epidemic of adolescent suicide in America . We must publicize and confront the problem. Last year some fifty-five hundred adolescents between fifteen and twenty-four years of age took their lives. At least ten times that tried. Some estimates are that 275 thousand teens attempted suicide last year. The rate of teenage suicide in America has tripled since 1955.

第三节 特别报道 美国青少年自杀问题研究

今天发表的两项新的研究报告将电视报道的自杀案件和随后的青少年自杀率这两件事进行了联系。《新英国医学月刊》报道说，这两项研究表明，一些青少年在看过电视节目后，可能采取自杀的方式以结束自己的生命。全国公共电台的罗瑞盖瑞特的报道。

第一个有关自杀的研究是由来自加州大学圣地亚哥分校的团队，在探讨了电视新闻对自杀的报道后作出的。大卫飞利浦和伦迪卡森松研究了自 1973 到 79 年间新闻网报道过的 45 桩自杀事件。

研究者比较了那些年里发生的青少年自杀事件和报道播送的时间。大卫菲利普说对自杀事件的新闻报道明显地促使美国青少年自杀数量的增长。

“讲述 ( 自杀 ) 故事的电视节目越多，随后发生的青少年自杀数量就越惊人。”

飞利浦对成上升趋势的青少年自杀与成人自杀状况进行了比较。

“每个青少年自杀的故事可以导致 2.91 件青少年自杀事件。而成年人自杀数量，我认为，每个故事是 2 人。青少年（数量）的增加，青少年百分比的增幅，远远高于成年人百分比的增长。这是由于我认为，青少年作出反应的百分率是成年人的 14-15 倍。

电视新闻报道似乎显示着比其他众所周知的青少年抑郁症发病期，如节日期间，个人生日，开学和冬季开始等，引发的增长还要大。飞利浦找不到特殊的引发青少年间更大沮丧反应的那类型的事情。飞利浦表示，似乎仅仅是“自杀”这个词和有人积极进行的行为的知识，就会抑郁症的青少年当中按下（自杀的）按钮。精神病学家称之为“模仿行为”。

“我的研究表明，好像是模仿行为不仅仅是相对温和的行为，像打扮，穿衣还有发型，似乎也有很越轨的行为。青少年的模仿显然是一刀切的，不只是自杀，也还有其他的行为 。

在另一项研究中，马德琳古尔德和哥伦比亚大学的大卫舍尔夫发现，有关自杀的电视电影也刺激了模仿行为。尽管电影旨在描绘出青少年自杀的问题，有些还提供了遏制自杀热线电话的号码和辅导意见。该小组认为，四个网络电影促使了 80 起青少年自杀事件。哥伦比亚大学的研究小组检测的之一是哥伦比亚广播公司的生产电视电影。乔治施韦策，哥伦比亚广播公司的副总裁，是也清楚这项研究。他说，“极其不幸的是，有青少年在节目播出后结束了他们的生命，如果他们做得过火了，”施魏策尔说，“哥伦比亚广播公司仍然会制作这样的电影。”

“这样的研究并不会推测到我们认为的大多数最重要的事，那些事我可能推测不到，而那样的播出会使成百也许是成千上万青少年绝对有所触动。”

触动他们去打遏制自杀热线电话，触动他们去寻求咨询，触动他们与家庭成员们讨论他的消沉。施魏策尔对今天研究并没有辩解的是：有些孩子会因触动而自杀。

我认为忽视令人担心的问题将会比公布（而产生的）社会问题更具灾难性，应帮助提高认识并达到积极的成效。

但研究员大卫飞利浦建议媒体可以通过避免集中播放自杀报道，以及通过改变方式而将其他一些加以掩盖来减少青少年自杀问题。例如，飞利浦说，“不要把自杀者打造成英雄。”他引用了名为《 a 》的报道，年轻的捷克持不同政见者引火自焚的故事。但是，持不同政见者采取行动是为了使人们注意在捷克斯洛伐克发生的政府镇压行动。新闻媒体真会忽视这样一篇报道吗？ “我认为这是一个非常棘手的问题。有关于这个问题从各方立场都有很多好处。感谢上帝，我还没有解开这个问题的办法。”

一个在这方面著名的专家表示，年轻人要模仿一则新闻报道或电影来结束他们的生命，对自杀的人来说确实很脆弱。在没有电视的故事时，他们生活中的一些其他活动的情况下很可能会引发他们的反应。因此，尽管大多数心理医生同意少年自杀行为有模仿的因素在里面。他们说，这种趋势不应该引导社会压制信息。相反，有些人说我们现在面临美国青少年自杀大流行的时候。我们要宣传和面对这个问题。去年，大约 5 千 5 百名年龄在 15 和 24 岁的青少年结束了他们的生命。至少 10 倍之多的人曾经尝试过。有人估计去年有 275000 青少年企图自杀。在美国的青少年自杀率自 1955 年以来增加了两倍。


图片来源于美国防止青少年自杀网站