作者：Brian Lowry唐纳德·特朗普不喜欢看到的新闻，于是他决定自己创造新闻。在这项事业中，他加入了大批利用不断演变的媒体环境、绕过传统把关人、发布未经筛选内容的行列。
By Brian Lowry Donald Trump didn’t like the news he was seeing, so he decided to create his own. In that endeavor, he joins plenty of others who have capitalized on an evolving media environment to bypass traditional gatekeepers and distribute unfiltered content.
但特朗普并非某个随机的油管博主，也不是在Substack上写作的失业记者。他是美国总统，这身份让其政府推出的所谓“特朗普电视台”——可在YouTube、WhiteHouse.gov及白宫官方应用程序上收看——有了截然不同的意味。加州州长加文·纽森等批评者将其比作“国家电视台”，让人联想到某些威权政权。
Except Trump isn’t some random YouTuber or laid-off journalist writing a Substack. He’s the president of the United States, which gives the channel his administration is calling “Trump TV” — available on YouTube, WhiteHouse.gov and the official White House app — a different spin. Critics such as California Governor Gavin Newsom have likened it to “state-run TV” reminiscent of some authoritarian regime.
在一个甚至按特朗普式新闻周期标准都算混乱的周里，总统试图禁止CNN、MSNBC和《政治报》进入白宫，随后推出了自己的替代性信息渠道。法院恢复了这三家媒体的采访权，但“特朗普电视台”这一称呼已随之而出，连同其所蕴含的深远影响。
In a chaotic week even by Trump-news-cycle standards, the president sought to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, then launched his own information alternative. A court reinstated the media trio, but not before the “Trump TV” moniker was unleashed, along with the implications that go with it.
从某种程度上说，人们很容易为平台爆发式增长带来的信息与娱乐流通民主化喝彩。这种动态让新声音——甚至一些老声音——得以冲破杂音脱颖而出，涵盖新闻到娱乐等领域，包括今夏在YouTube上孵化出的意外票房大片《Deadpool & Wolverine》和《Twisters》。
In one respect, it’s easy to applaud the explosion of platforms democratizing the flow of information and entertainment. That dynamic has allowed new voices — and even a few older ones — to break through the clutter, from news to entertainment, including this summer’s surprise YouTube-cultivated box-office hits and .
然而，当权势人物利用个人平台移除新闻界的中间人、控制信息时，这一公式就被颠覆了。虽然这严格来说可作为艺人或政治家向数百万追随者推广自己的手段，但在特朗普的案例中，其目的似乎在于消弭批评、回避尖锐提问、压制异议。
The equation gets subverted, however, when the powerful use personal platforms to remove journalistic middlemen and control the message. While that can strictly serve as a means of promoting an entertainer or politician to millions of followers, in Trump’s case, the goal appears to be muffling criticism, avoiding tough questions and stifling dissent.
突然之间，拥有世界上最大扩音器的人还需要自己的频道？欢迎来到“颠倒世界”。
Suddenly, the guy with the world’s biggest megaphone needs his own channel? Welcome to Upside Down.
特朗普并不以精通科技著称，他依赖助手娜塔莉·哈普——他所谓的“人肉打印机”——来为他提供数字世界的纸质副本。然而，正如他试图禁止媒体采访所显示的，这并未阻止他识别出传统媒体在现代社会中的弱点。随着人工智能扰乱搜索引擎算法和流量，新闻机构正因触达范围和影响力日益萎缩而苦苦挣扎，因此不愿失去接触新闻人物的机会。
Trump isn’t known for being particularly tech-savvy, relying on aide Natalie Harp, his so-called human printer, to provide him with analog copies of a digital world. Yet, as his attempt to ban the press shows, that hasn’t stopped him from identifying a vulnerability of traditional media in the modern age. With AI disrupting search-engine algorithms and traffic, news outlets are struggling with dwindling reach and influence, and thus are reluctant to lose access to newsmakers.
在认识到这一杠杆作用的问题上，特朗普并非精英和名人中的孤例，他们已明白可以培育出更友好——也更不可预测性更小——的媒体环境。当你可以坚持只在安全的论坛露面，或直接通过社交媒体发帖时，为什么要冒险面对可能追问的记者？
Trump isn’t alone among elites and celebrities in recognizing this leverage, having learned it’s possible to cultivate more hospitable — and less unpredictable — media environments. Why risk dealing with reporters who might ask follow-up questions when you can stick to safe forums, or issue posts directly via social media?
以汤姆·克鲁斯为例，他很大程度上避开了媒体采访，这使得他本月为宣传新片而接受的一次罕见《GQ》专访显得格外引人注目。然而，这篇 报道却回避了该演员涉足山达基教会等问题，让记者扎克·巴伦不得不为自己辩护，说明他是否为了拿下这次专访而做出了任何“禁区”让步（他坚称没有）。
Tom Cruise, for one, has largely shied away from press, which made a rare sit-down GQ interview this month to promote his movie noteworthy. The cover story, however, overlooked issues like the actor’s involvement with Scientology, putting journalist Zach Baron on the defensive about whether he made any don’t-go-there concessions to land it (he insisted he didn’t).
然而，对于美国总统而言，赌注更高。关于“特朗普电视台”的构想早已被提出，作为他离开政坛后的一种可能性，旨在利用他庞大的媒体影响力。作为电视时代的宠儿，特朗普对什么在该媒介中行之有效自有一套见解，这源于他在聚光灯下数十年的经历以及主持《学徒》的时光。
The stakes are higher, however, for the president of the United States. The idea behind Trump TV has long been floated as a possibility he leaves politics, capitalizing on his vast media footprint. A child of television, Trump has his own sense of what works in that medium, honed by decades in the spotlight and his time hosting .
不过，在媒体禁令的背景下，开办自己的频道只会让他显得像个孩子——因报道不够阿谀奉承而发脾气，选择拿起玩具回家不玩了。据CNN报道，一些报道表明，特朗普的第二任期因他拒绝听取可能劝阻他做出错误决定的声音、将自己与批评隔绝开来而受损。这种动态可能助长了禁令的出台。
In the context of the media ban, though, launching his own channel simply made him look like a child — throwing a fit over insufficiently fawning coverage, and choosing to take his toys and go home. Some reporting has indicated Trump’s second term has suffered because he’s shunned voices who might dissuade him from bad decisions and insulated himself from criticism. That dynamic may have helped trigger the ban, according to CNN.
如果真是这样，特朗普正在经历我们许多人现在所处的孤岛式生态系统的负面影响，这或许能解释为何他的表演天赋失灵了。特朗普电视台缺乏冲突和对抗的看点，这很可能是收看人数始终寥寥无几的原因之一，《卫报》将该频道描述为“给‘让美国再次伟大’（MAGA）忠实拥趸的自我安抚式宣传”。特朗普电视台看似多余之处在于，总统并不缺乏始终将他视为凯旋英雄的平台，包括福克斯新闻黄金时段节目阵容、Newsmax、右翼广播网（Right Side Broadcasting Network），以及由毫不掩饰的啦啦队长主持的播客。显然，即使这些还不够。
If that’s the case, Trump would be experiencing the ill effects of the siloed ecosystem in which many of us now reside, which could explain why his showman instincts abandoned him. Trump TV lacks the sizzle of conflict and confrontation, which is likely one of the reasons why relatively few people have been watching it at any given time, with The Guardian describing the channel as “self-soothing propaganda for the MAGA faithful.” The seemingly unnecessary aspect of Trump TV is that the president has no shortage of platforms that consistently treat him like a conquering hero, including Fox News’ primetime lineup, Newsmax, Right Side Broadcasting Network, and podcasts hosted by unabashed cheerleaders. Apparently even that’s not enough.
特朗普首任期伊始，高级顾问康韦曾因声称新闻秘书斯派塞引用了关于2017年特朗普就职典礼人群规模的“另类事实”而闻名。这虽然立刻成了深夜脱口秀的绝佳素材，但也预示了总统在面对棘手事实时的应对方式：死守自己的现实。
At the outset of Trump’s first term, senior adviser Kellyanne Conway famously said press secretary Sean Spicer had cited “alternative facts” about the crowd size at Trump’s 2017 inauguration. While that became instant fodder for late-night comics, it also offered a preview of how the president would operate when faced with pesky facts, clinging to his own reality.
说到深夜节目，吉米·金梅尔和斯蒂芬·科尔伯特也找到了创造性的方式利用YouTube，通过发布对德克萨斯州联邦参议员候选人塔拉里科的采访来规避电视网限制，引发了监管担忧。但那不是这里发生的事。特朗普电视台是权势人物利用其地位不仅引导话题，更寻求完全控制话语权的合乎逻辑的延伸。
Speaking of late night, both Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert also found creative ways to take advantage of YouTube, skirting network restrictions by posting interviews with Texas US Senate candidate James Talarico that raised regulatory concerns. But that’s not what’s happening here. Trump TV serves as the logical extension of the powerful using their perches not just to steer conversations, but to seek complete control over them.
YouTube和其他新兴平台仍有潜力丰富公共对话、倡导多元声音。但正如这段时间所显示的，它们也助长了现代版的“巴别塔”，将媒体隔离开来，以便那些不愿被尖锐提问打扰、不愿被迫面对不便真相的人寻求安逸。
YouTube and other newer platforms still have the potential to enrich public dialogue and champion a diversity of voices. But as this stretch has illustrated, they have also contributed to a modern Tower of Babel, cordoning off media for the comfort of those who don’t want to be bothered by impertinent questions or forced to handle inconvenient truths.