“强硬但公正”——缅怀迈克.华莱士_迈克华莱士
时间：2019-05-07 03:26:28 来源：柠檬阅读网 本文已影响 人 
2012年4月7日，迈克·华莱士，一位极具魅力却又颇具争议的主持天才告别了世界。他是美国电视界“教父”级的人物，他被视为新闻界的“新闻怪杰”，也被称为主持界的“拷问者”。他的离去，让人为之惋惜；而他的传奇，将被后人铭记。
Veteran TV newsman Mike Wallace died Saturday night at age 93. Born Myron Wallace in Brookline, Mass., in 1918, the famously tough interviewer known by detractors1) as "Mike Malice2)" was the first man hired at CBS"s trendsetting3) newsmagazine 60 Minutes, which launched in 1968. Wallace contributed to the program until 2008. His hand-picked4) epitaph5), he said in post-retirement interviews, is "tough but fair". Here"s a look at the grand inquisitor"s6) remarkable life and career.
Wallace"s TV career was astonishingly long. "It"s hard to believe, but when Wallace was born, in 1918, there wasn"t even a radio in most American homes, much less a TV," says former colleague Morley Safer at CBS News. But after starting his career in radio—as the narrator for soaps and serial dramas like The Green Hornet7)—the University of Michigan graduate first appeared on camera in a World War II film for the Navy, then on game shows and other entertainment programs, TV ads for Parliament cigarettes, and finally news.
And he interviewed almost everyone. "There were very few 20th century icons who didn"t submit to8) a Mike Wallace interview," says CBS News" Safer. He questioned Vladimir Putin and Yassir Arafat, asked Iran"s Ayatollah Khomeini if he was a "lunatic9)", made Barbra Streisand cry, and was reduced to tears10) in his own favorite interview with pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Wallace also interviewed every president from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton—George W. Bush was the only one to refuse him an interview, says Roger Friedman in Forbes.
He was a pioneer of hard-hitting11) TV journalism. For any newsmaker with a secret, "four of the most dreaded12) words in the English language were "Mike Wallace is here"," says Adam Bernstein in The Washington Post. Starting with a local New York TV show, Night Beat, in 1956, Wallace "developed a compelling persona13)", throwing politicians, celebrities, gangsters14), and other subjects off-guard15) with sharp turns into shocking direct questions. He also helped popularize hidden-camera exposés and "ambush16)" interviews. "He paved the way for how investigative journalism is done on television," TV historian Ron Simon tells The Washington Post.
But he almost always knew where to draw the line17). "He loved being Mike Wallace," says CBS News chairman Jeff Fager. "He loved the fact that if he showed up for an interview, it made people nervous." At the same time, "I don"t recall anybody ever saying to me, "He took a cheap shot18)"," says Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. "He actually was trying to serve the audience, and that"s what made him great."
Still, he changed TV news for the better19). Lots of Wallace"s contemporaries20) practiced their own adversarial21) styles of journalism, says James Poniewozik in TIME. But "Wallace, with his hawk-like22) attentiveness and softly disarming23) questions, came to personify the devastating interview because, as the head of the 60 Minutes team, he knew how to make good journalism into good TV." His turn as "television"s grand inquisitor" is a testament24) to how good reporting and compelling TV, plus "the occasional willingness to call B.S.25) on a subject"s answers, could affect change." Among the ways he changed TV news "for the better", says former colleague Dan Rather: It "became more investigative, more aggressive and relevant". It will never be the same.
资深电视新闻人迈克·华莱士于周六晚(编注：2012年4月7日)辞世，享年93岁。迈克·华莱士原名迈伦·华莱士，1918年出生于马萨诸塞州的布鲁克莱恩镇，这位以强硬而著称的访谈节目主持人被其批评者称为“不怀好意的迈克”。他是美国哥伦比亚广播公司(CBS)风格创新的电视新闻杂志栏目《60分钟》聘用的第一位工作人员，该节目始播于1968年，华莱士一直为其效力到2008年。他在退休后接受采访时谈到，他为自己精心挑选的墓志铭是“强硬但公正”。下面一起回顾一下这位伟大的拷问者不凡的一生和辉煌的职业生涯吧。
华莱士的电视主持生涯长得惊人。“说起来令人难以置信，但在1918年华莱士出生时，大多数美国家庭甚至连一个收音机都没有，更不用说电视了。”CBS新闻网的老同事莫利·塞弗说。华莱士的职业生涯始于广播，那时他为多部肥皂剧和《青蜂侠》一类的系列广播剧担当旁白叙述，此后，这位密歇根大学的毕业生先是出演了一部专为海军拍摄的二战影片，接着开始主持游戏类节目和其他娱乐节目，还曾为“百乐门”牌香烟拍过广告，最后才开始主持新闻类节目。
他几乎采访过每一位大人物。“20世纪的标志性人物中，没有接受过迈克·华莱士采访的寥寥无几。” CBS新闻网的塞弗说。华莱士曾质问过弗拉基米尔·普京和亚西尔·阿拉法特(编注：曾任巴勒斯坦总统)，询问过伊朗的阿亚图拉·霍梅尼(编注：伊朗精神领袖)是不是“疯子”；他曾让芭芭拉·史翠珊(编注：美国女艺人)潸然泪下，也曾在自己最喜爱的对钢琴家弗拉基米尔·霍罗威茨的采访中潸然泪下。华莱士还采访过历届美国总统，从约翰·F·肯尼迪到比尔·克林顿，而乔治·W·布什是唯一一位拒绝接受他采访的总统，罗杰·弗里德曼为《福布斯》杂志撰文时如是说。
他是犀利派电视新闻节目的先驱。对于每一位藏有秘密的新闻人物来说，“英语中最令人恐怖的四个词莫过于‘Mike Wallace is here’(迈克·华莱士在此)。”亚当·伯恩斯坦在《华盛顿邮报》中这样说道。从1956年开始主持一档纽约当地电视节目《晚间节奏》时起，华莱士就“塑造了一个咄咄逼人的人物形象”，趁许多政客、名流、黑帮分子以及其他受访者毫无防备之时突转话锋，问其一些非常直白的问题。他还推动了使用隐藏照相机进行曝光的做法以及“突袭式”采访的盛行。“他为调查性新闻采访如何在电视上运作铺平了道路。”电视历史学家罗恩·西蒙在接受《华盛顿邮报》采访时说。
但他几乎总是知道底线在哪里。“他喜欢做迈克·华莱士，”CBS新闻网主席杰夫·法格说道，“只要他一出现在采访现场，人们就会非常紧张，他就是喜欢这种感觉。”与此同时，“我不记得有任何人跟我说过‘他血口喷人’，”福克斯新闻网主席罗杰·艾尔斯谈到，“他其实在努力为观众服务，而这也是他之所以伟大的原因。”
还有，他改变了电视新闻节目，使之变得更好。詹姆斯·波尼沃泽克在《时代周刊》中指出，许多与华莱士同时代的新闻主持人都有他们自己的对采访者充满敌意的主持风格，但“华莱士以他那鹰隼般的专注和不动声色就能令人消除戒备的提问成为强硬式采访的象征，因为，作为《60分钟》制作团队的负责人，他知道怎样才能把好的新闻做成好的电视节目”。他摇身一变成为了“电视屏幕上的伟大拷问者”，这一转变证明好的报道和强硬风格的电视节目以及“偶尔称受访者的回答为胡说八道的做法如何能影响新闻节目的改变”。他用这些方法改变了电视新闻节目，“使之变得更好”，他以前的同事丹·拉瑟说道：它“变得更注重调查，更为强势，也更加中肯”。电视新闻自此再也不同以往。
1. detractor [dɪˈtræktə(r)] n. 诋毁者，贬低者
2. malice [ˈmælɪs] n. 恶意
3. trendsetting [ˈtrendsetɪŋ] adj. (在思想、服装式样等方面)创新风的
4. hand-picked: 精心选挑的
5. epitaph [ˈepɪtɑːf] n. 墓志铭
6. inquisitor [ɪnˈkwɪzɪtə(r)] n. 审讯人；严厉的提问者
7. The Green Hornet: 《青蜂侠》，迈克·华莱士于1936年参演的一部广播剧。
8. submit to: 甘受；向……屈服
9. lunatic [ˈluːnətɪk] n. 疯子
10. reduce to tears: 使……难过得流泪；使……伤心得流泪
11. hard-hitting: (批评)直言不讳的，犀利的
12. dread [dred] vt. 怕；畏惧
13. persona [pəˈsəʊnə] n. (同本人真实品格或性格不一致的)表面形象；面目
14. gangster [ˈɡæŋstə(r)] n. (结成团伙的)匪徒，流氓
15. off-guard: 毫无思想准备的；不提防的
16. ambush [ˈæmbʊʃ] n. 埋伏；伏击
17. draw the line: 划定最后界限
18. cheap shot: 奚落；恶意中伤
Quotations 精彩语录
1. "Mike Wallace is here."
2. "I determined that if I was to carve out a piece of reportorial territory for myself it would be [doing] the hard interview, irreverent if necessary, the facade-piercing interview."
3. "Forgive me, but ..."
4. "What do you think? Is it a good idea to retire?"
5. "To go around the world, to talk to almost anybody you want to talk to, to have enough time on the air, so that you could really tell a full story. What a voyage of discovery it was!"
6. "I"ve written about it. "Tough, but fair", and that"s really for a reporter ... "Tough but fair"."
1. 迈克·华莱士在此。
——《60分钟》节目曾经制作过一个广告，广告中提出一个问题：“哪四个单词会让骗子和流氓听后闻风丧胆？”而这就是答案。
2. 我曾下定决心，如果我能开创出属于自己的一片新闻报道天地，那它将会是(报道)强硬的新闻，如果需要不敬的话，更是揭穿表象的新闻。
——很多人不明白迈克·华莱士缘何如此“胆大妄为”，缘何“无所畏惧”，缘何不愿“采访肤浅的人”，在被问及如何评价自己的成就时，迈克·华莱士如是说。
3. 原谅我，但是……
——迈克·华莱士擅长用类似的言语突转话锋，让人在毫无戒备之下便陷入他的尖锐拷问中。
4. 你觉得呢？退休不好吗？
——2006年，迈克·华莱士在其退休前最后一次采访了伊朗总统马哈茂德·艾哈迈迪-内贾德，访谈中内贾德说了句 “我听说这是你最后一次采访”，本想借机讥讽华莱士，不料却被华莱士反将一军。
5. 能够环游世界，能够和几乎每一个你想交谈的人交谈，能拥有足够的广播时间，从而让你能真正地讲述一个完整的故事。这是怎样的一次发现之旅啊！
——迈克·华莱士在接受CBS《晚间新闻》主持人鲍勃·希弗的采访，谈到自己对工作的理解时如是说。
6. 我已经写好了。“强硬，但却公正”，这用在一个记者身上再合适不过了……“强硬但公正”。
——多少人曾为自己想过或写过墓志铭？CBS新闻脱口秀主持人凯蒂·库里克曾在对迈克·华莱士的采访中问道“你有没有给自己想过一个墓志铭？”他毫不犹豫地给出了上面的答案。
