无论你看了多少电视节目，几乎可以肯定你都看过许多公益广告（public service announcements）。从定义上来说，这些广告的目的是为了促进公众的利益，通常是通过宣传与安全、健康等相关的话题来达到这一目的。例如，那些鼓励人们系安全带、远离非法毒品、减少污染以及避免酒后驾车的广告，都属于典型的公益广告。有些公益广告甚至成为了某种文化象征；比如“斯莫基熊”（Smokey the Bear）就曾告诉美国人：“只有你才能防止森林火灾。”
No matter how much television you’ve watched, you’ve almost certainly seen plenty of public service announcements. By definition, these commercials are designed to advance the public’s interests, usually by promoting causes related to safety and health. Ads encouraging people to wear seat belts, steer clear of illicit drugs, curtail pollution and avoid drunk driving, for example, are classic PSAs. Some public service announcements even become cultural touchstones of sorts, such as Smokey the Bear telling Americans, “Only you can prevent forest fires.”
你不需要是广告专家，也能分辨出公益广告与带有党派色彩的选举宣传之间的本质区别。然而，白宫显然认为这两者是一回事。据 NBC 新闻报道：美国政府正在播放一则新的电视广告，宣传唐纳德·特朗普总统的成就。广告中，终极格斗冠军赛（Ultimate Fighting Championship）的首席执行官达纳·怀特（Dana White）称特朗普为“最坚强、最具韧性的人”，同时背景音乐中反复播放着“爱我”（“Love me”）的旋律。该广告被宣传为“由美国政府资助的公益广告”。
You don’t need to be an advertising expert to recognize the qualitative difference between a PSA and partisan, election-season propaganda, but the White House apparently expects people to believe they’re effectively one and the same. NBC News reported: The administration is airing a new TV ad touting President Donald Trump’s accomplishments — featuring Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White praising him as the “toughest, most resilient person,” with music proclaiming “love me” — which it says is a “public service announcement” funded “by the U.S. government.
尽管这则广告带有明显的政治色彩，但白宫的一位发言人仍向 NBC 新闻表示，这只是一则“公益广告”。这位官员辩称：由于特朗普并未参加这次中期选举，且广告中也没有任何呼吁人们采取具体行动的内容，因此这则广告并不具有政治性质。
Despite the political overtones, a White House spokesperson told NBC News that the ad was a “public service announcement.” The official argued the ad wasn’t political because Trump isn’t on the ballot in the midterm elections and the ad doesn’t have any call to action.
“这些公益广告的目的是提醒美国人热爱自己的国家，并让他们明白这个国家值得我们去捍卫——无论是在国内、边境，还是在国外，”白宫发言人补充道，“这则广告具有教育意义，同时也充满了爱国情怀。”不过，这位发言人是否能够面不改色地说出这样的话，实在令人怀疑……其实这里并没有什么复杂的秘密。这则时长30秒的广告从本周开始播出，从本质上来说就是一场竞选宣传活动：由于提前投票阶段正式开始，该广告充斥着特朗普及其竞选口号的图片和视频片段；广告的最后，一位特朗普的支持者称赞了特朗普的“强硬作风”。这则广告的唯一目的就是颂扬和美化特朗普本人，而特朗普显然希望利用这些广告来激发共和党核心选民的热情。
“These public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders, and abroad,” the White House spokesperson added. “The ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic.” Whether the spokesperson was able to type this statement with a straight face is unclear. There’s no great mystery here. The 30-second ad, which began airing this week, looks like a campaign commercial because it is: The spot, launched as the early voting window starts to open in earnest, is filled with images and video clips of Trump and his campaign slogans. It concludes with a Trump ally praising the president’s “toughness.” The ad serves no purpose other than to celebrate and glorify the president, who’s eager to run election-season ads intended to generate enthusiasm among core Republican voters.
如果特朗普想通过自己资金雄厚的超级政治行动委员会（super PAC）来实现这一目标，那也是情有可原的。但本周，美国政府却开始播放这类政治宣传内容，迫使纳税人来为这些广告买单——而这一切都发生在提前投票阶段刚刚启动的时候。
If Trump wants to use his deep-pocketed super PAC to pursue such a goal, that would make sense. But this week, the administration began using to air political propaganda, forcing taxpayers to finance the White House’s closing message as the early voting period gets underway.
将竞选广告称为“公益广告”（PSA）根本无法改变其本质。我们都见过公益广告，但很明显，这根本不是公益广告。
Calling a campaign ad a PSA does not make it so. We’ve all seen PSAs, and it’s obvious this isn’t one of them.
正如《华盛顿邮报》所报道的那样，根据联邦法律，将资金用于“宣传目的”是违法的；政府问责办公室（Government Accountability Office）也明确指出，这种禁令适用于那些“纯粹具有党派倾向”、且“旨在帮助某个政党或候选人”的宣传内容。从这则广告的内容和背景来看，显然它符合这一定义。
As The Washington Post reported, it is illegal under federal law to use funds for “propaganda purposes,” and the Government Accountability Office has said the prohibition applies to communications that are “purely partisan” and “designed to aid a political party or candidates,” which would seem to apply to this video, given the content and the context.
马里兰州的民主党众议员杰米·拉斯金（Jamie Raskin）是众议院司法委员会的负责人，她在社交媒体上指出，这则广告可能构成“刑事犯罪行为”，属于“将政府资金挪用于政治竞选目的”。随后，几位负责国会拨款事务的民主党议员——华盛顿州的帕蒂·默里（Patty Murray）参议员、康涅狄格州的罗莎·德拉乌罗（Rosa DeLauro）众议员、罗德岛州的杰克·里德（Jack Reed）参议员以及马里兰州的斯坦尼·霍耶（Steny Hoyer）众议员——联名致信白宫幕僚长苏西·怀尔斯（Susie Wiles），要求政府立即停止播放这则广告。
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, argued via social media that the ad could amount to, among other things, “felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes.” Soon after, several Democratic lawmakers who serve on congressional appropriations panels — Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland — wrote a letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles demanding the administration immediately take the ad off the air.
“这种政府宣传内容简直就像是朝鲜才会使用的，而不是美国会采用的；这完全是对美国人辛苦挣来的税款的一种恶劣且非法的滥用行为，”他们写道，并补充道：“相关法律其实很简单：绝不能用纳税人的钱来从事政治活动。”
“This is the sort of government propaganda one might expect in North Korea, not the United States of America, and it is an egregious and utterly illegal misuse of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars,” they wrote, adding, “The law is not complicated. You cannot use taxpayer dollars for political s.”
这些议员还要求白宫“对那些明知故犯、违反联邦法律的联邦雇员进行严厉处分”，并向国会提供“用于制作和播放该广告的所有联邦资金的详细使用情况”。白宫至今尚未对这封函件作出任何回应。请继续关注后续进展。
The lawmakers similarly demanded that the White House “reprimand and discipline the federal employees who knowingly violated federal law” and provide Congress with “a full account and breakdown of all federal funds used to create and air this ad.” The White House has not yet responded to the correspondence. Watch this space.