译者 照照
How the Fall of the Soviet Union Changed the News Media
苏联的解体如何改变了新闻媒体
By Carolyn Deady
文：卡洛琳·戴迪
Dec 19 2011, 7:02 AM
2011年12月19日 早上7:02
American TV would never cover breaking news the same way again
颠覆美国电视台报道突发新闻的方式
Picture: A Russian family watches Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev's resignation speech on live TV, Christmas day 1991 / AP
This post is part of a 12-part series exploring how the U.S.-Russia relationship has shaped the world since the December 1991 end of the Soviet Union.
本帖是某系列报道的十二分之一。该系列文章探讨1991年12月苏联解体后，美俄关系如何改变了世界。
International media coverage of the historic events in Moscow on December 25, 1991, was a first for world broadcast news. Earlier in the year, Ted Turner's Cable News Network had a television news victory. A decade after its founding, CNN, surpassed the "Big Three" American networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- in ratings with its coverage from inside Iraq during the Gulf War. The 24-hour news network had come into its own. That Christmas Day, CNN got its next major scoop in Moscow.
1991年12月25日，国际媒体对莫斯科历史性重大事件的报道方式在世界广播新闻史上是第一次。该年早些时候，特德·特纳的有线电视新闻网（简称CNN）取得了电视新闻的胜利。CNN创办十年后，凭借海湾战争中从伊拉克发回的报道，收视率超过了美国媒体三巨头：美国广播公司（ABC）、哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）、和全美广播公司（NBC）。这个24小时滚动播出的新闻网终于得到了它应有的荣誉。那个圣诞节，CNN在莫斯科拿下了它第二条重要的独家新闻。
With the exception of a small ABC crew filming in Moscow for a documentary, CNN had exclusive access that day to both Boris Yeltsin, set to become the first-ever Russian president, and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. After carrying Gorbachev's resignation speech live, CNN broadcast a sit-down interview with the former Soviet leader. CNN aired the speech at 11 am EST, whether on its own channel or through other networks that had bought the right to show it, in over 150 countries; history-making news broadcast around the world instantaneously. It was the first time that a news organization had broadcast, live, an interview with a world leader the same night he had resigned.
除了有一小队ABC工作人员在莫斯科录制纪录片，CNN是当天唯一能接近即将成为第一任俄罗斯总统鲍里斯·叶利钦和前苏联总统米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫的媒体。实录戈尔巴乔夫的辞职演说后，CNN录制了与这位前苏联领袖的访谈节目。东部标准时间上午11点，CNN通过自己的频道和其它买下该节目转播权的新闻网在150多个国家播出了戈的辞职演说，实现了重大新闻的全球同步播放。这是新闻机构第一次在一位世界级领导辞职的当晚直播对他的采访。
Cameras rolled as the Soviet flag, which had flown over the Kremlin for decades, was taken down and replaced with the new Russian standard. The flag was not supposed to be replaced until after the New Year, but Kremlin workers made the switch shortly after Gorbachev's resignation. Russian News, the only outlet aware of the changeover in advance, was the sole organization to capture it on video.
摄像机随着苏联国旗移动。该旗在克里姆林宫上方飘扬了几十年，此时被降下来，由新的俄罗斯国旗取代。本来国旗应该在新年后替换，但克里姆林宫的工作者在戈尔巴乔夫辞职后就很快完成了改变。俄罗斯新闻是唯一一个预先知道这一变化的渠道，也是唯一留下视频资料的机构。
While handing over the nuclear suitcase would also have made for an iconic image, it never happened, at least directly. Gorbachev's transfer of control of the Soviet Union's nuclear missiles to now-President Boris Yeltsin, a metaphor for the end of the Cold War, was an act of paperwork. The two leaders never made the direct exchange, but A wire service got a photo of Gorbachev signing the document handing over control of the weapons. The image appeared on the front page of newspapers around the world the next day.
交接核手提箱本来也会是极具象征意义的一幕，但它从未发生，至少没有直接发生。戈尔巴乔夫将苏联的核导弹转交现任总统鲍里斯·叶利钦喻示着冷战的结束，但走的只是书面流程。这两位领袖从未直接交流此事，但某新闻社得到一张戈尔巴乔夫签署移交武器控制权的文件。第二天，这张照片出现在全世界报纸的头版。
At 9 pm that night -- Christmas day -- President George H.W. Bush addressed the nation from the Oval Office. His address was carried live by most TV networks in the United States and picked up around the world. Other world leaders also made statements regarding the events of the day, all of which was covered in both broadcast and print media. Most Western leaders praised Mikhail Gorbachev, recognized the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States -- the successor organization to the Soviet Union -- and expressed their faith in the security of nuclear weapons with the transfer of power.
当晚9点——圣诞节——乔治·赫伯特·沃克·布什在白宫椭圆形办公室发表全国演说。该演说被美国大部分电视台直播，并在全世界转播。其他世界级领袖也针对当天事件发表了言论，电视广播和平面媒体报道了所有言论。许多西方领袖称赞米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫，认可独立国家联合体——苏联之后的组织——的创建，并对权力移交后核武器的安全充满信心。
For media around the world, the end of the Soviet Union was perhaps the biggest story of 1991. Coverage from Moscow on Christmas Day prompted much discussion: analysis of Gorbachev's resignation speech, what the end of the Cold War meant, the fate of the Russian economy and that of the other republics in the Commonwealth of Independent States, energy reserves, nuclear weapons, and the economic impact on other communist nations (like Cuba and North Korea).
对全世界的媒体来说，苏联的解体也许是1991年最重大的新闻。圣诞节从莫斯科发出的报道引发了诸多讨论：对戈尔巴乔夫辞职演讲的分析、冷战结束的意义、俄国经济和独联体其它共和国的命运、能源储备、以及此事件对其它国家（如古巴和朝鲜）的经济影响。
In the days before the Internet, cell phones, social media, texting, and tweeting, the world got its news from television networks, newspapers, and magazines, often with a lag time of at least a day. But, on Christmas day 1991, people could watch history happen, right in front of them on their TV screens.
在互联网、手机、社会化媒体、短信、推特出现之前，全世界人民都是通过电视网络、新闻和杂志得知新闻，中间至少耽搁一天。但是，在1991年的圣诞节，人们可以实时见证历史，就发生在他们面前的电视屏幕上。
Carolyn Deady - Carolyn Deady is a freelance journalist and former international producer at C-SPAN in Washington, DC. She is an Adjunct Fellow at the American Security Project.
卡洛琳·戴迪：卡洛琳·戴迪是一名自由记者，曾在华盛顿C-SPAN有线电视担任国际制片人。她是"美国安全项目"客座研究员。
from 译言-每日精品译文推荐 http://article.yeeyan.org/view/271966/241978