哽咽报道有预案?刘翔卷入阴谋论旋涡

What do convicted murderer Gu Kailai, serial killer Zhou Kehua and Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang have in common?

被判谋杀罪名成立的谷开来、连环杀手周克华和中国跨栏运动员刘翔之间有什么共同之处？

As of Wednesday, all three stand at the center of viral, conspiracy-driven controversies that say unflattering things about the credibility of China's state-run media.

截至周三，这三人全都处在广泛传播的阴谋论引发的争议旋涡之中。这些争议令中国官方媒体的公信力问题得以凸显。

Liu is the latest to top the country's conspiracy charts, thanks to a revelation at an Olympics reporting forum in Beijing from China Central Television sports anchor Yang Jian.

由于中国中央电视台(CCTV)体育解说员杨健在北京一个奥运报道论坛上的报料，刘翔成为最新一位站上中国阴谋论风口浪尖的人物。

Mr. Yang gained renown in China for struggling to hold back tears after an injured Liu failed to clear even a single hurdle in crashing out of his preliminary heat in the 110-meter hurdles during the London Olympics earlier this month. 'Liu Xiang was like a warrior,' the anchor said, sniffling audibly. 'Even knowing he'd never make it to the end, he still flew.'

本月早些时候的伦敦奥运会110米栏项目预赛中，受伤病困扰的刘翔连一个栏也没有跨过。在那之后，杨健因其含泪解说而闻名中国。他用听得见抽泣的声音说：刘翔就是个战士，在明知道不可能跑到终点的时候，他飞了起来。

Outrage erupted online after local media, reporting on Wednesday's forum, quoted Mr. Yang telling the audience he'd prepared his report ahead of time after being informed that Liu had a serious problem with his foot.

国内媒体在报道周三论坛的时候引用了杨健告诉听众的一些话，之后网上众怒爆发。杨健说，他赛前得知刘翔脚上伤势严重，于是提前做好了解说准备。

'I heard about Liu's injury before the game from my personal sources,' Mr. Yang said, according to an audio recording of the forum posted online. 'My superior asked me to praise this heroic athlete, regardless of the result of the race, which I totally agreed with.'

据网上一份录音，杨健说，预赛前，我们得知刘翔的伤势情况不太好，向领导请示，得到的指示是，一定要对这样中国英雄式的运动员给予赞美，无论比赛什么样，不能完全以成绩来论，这跟我的想法完全一致。

The state-run Southern Daily reported that Mr. Yang had prepared four different responses based on the possible outcomes of the race, including the emotional tribute he ended up delivering.

官方媒体《南方日报》报道说，杨健根据可能的比赛结果准备了四种不同的解说预案，其中之一就是他最后的动情赞美。

'Liu Xiang Knew, CCTV Knew, the Leaders Knew Only the Masses Waited Stupidly for a Miracle to Happen,' blared the top headline on the front page of the Thursday edition of the Oriental Guardian, a commercial tabloid based in Nanjing.

南京的报纸《东方卫报》(Oriental Guardian)周四头版头条标题说：刘翔知道、央视知道、领导知道──只有观众在傻等见证奇迹的时刻。

With the help of that and other sensational headlines, the news exploded on social media sites, generating 38 million posts on Sina Corp.'s Weibo microblogging service by Thursday afternoon-many of them angry missives that accused CCTV of deliberately trying to hoodwink viewers.

受助于《东方卫报》等媒体耸人听闻的标题，这条消息在社交媒体上炸开了锅，到周四下午，新浪微博相关信息达到3,800万条，其中很多都指责央视故意蒙骗观众。

'What else is going on without informing us?' asked one commentator.

一位用户评论说：又有多少事情不为我们所知呢？

Of more than 19,000 respondents who had participated in an unscientific online poll conducted on Sina Weibo by Thursday night, 76% said they felt cheated after hearing the news.

新浪微博发起了一项非科学网络调查，截至周四夜间有19,000多人回应，其中76%的人表示他们听到这一消息后感觉受骗。

Calls to multiple phones at the offices of CCTV's sports channel rang unanswered Thursday.

记者周四多次拨打央视体育频道的电话，均无人接听。

Sha Tong, a senior CCTV sports anchor who was reported to have helped direct the Olympics coverage, declined to discuss the matter. ''I don't want to comment on this,' he said. 'There's too much misreading out there.'

据报道曾参与指导这次奥运报道的央视资深体育解说员沙桐拒绝讨论此事。他说，我不想评论，误读太多了。

What CCTV did is not particularly unusual. Television stations, newspapers and other news media around the globe will routinely prepare multiple versions of a report about an unpredictable event an elections, say, or a court decision so as to be able to get the news out quickly regardless of the result.

央视的所作所为并非特别罕见。全世界电视台、报纸等新闻单位经常为一件不可预料的事件（如选举结果或法庭判决结果）准备多份报道预案，这样不论结果如何都能迅速将消息传播出去。

Nor was it a secret that Liu was dealing with injuries at the time: He had pulled out of his final pre-Olympic race in July because of problems with his back and a day before his race the state-run Xinhua news agency had quoted Liu's coach mentioning a foot injury.

刘翔的伤势在当时也不是秘密。7月份他就因为背部的问题退出了奥运之前的最后一场比赛，而且在奥运预赛之前一天，刘翔的教练在新华社的报道中提到了他的脚伤。

So why so much outrage?

公众为何如此愤怒？

Some clue might be found in two other currently broiling controversies: one surrounding Gu Kailai, the wife of fallen Communist Party star Bo Xilai, and other concerning Zhou Kehua, a serial killer recently gunned down in Chongqing.

或许可以从另外两起目前讨论得热火朝天的争议中找到线索。一起争议涉及已经倒台的中共政治明星薄熙来的妻子谷开来，另一起涉及最近在重庆被击毙的连环杀手周克华。

In the case of Gu Kailai, who was recently convicted of the murder of a British businessman, conspiracy theorists have insisted (based on a comparison of video stills and earlier photos) that the woman who appeared in court for the trial and sentencing was not Ms. Gu at all, but rather a body double. In Zhou's case, skeptics have cast doubt on whether Chongqing police actually shot him, with some saying they shot an undercover copy from out of town and others insisting Mr. Zhou shot himself.

关于前不久被判故意杀害一名英国商人罪名成立的谷开来，阴谋论者将视频截图与早前照片比较，坚持认为那位出庭受审并接受判决的女子根本就不是谷开来，而是一名替身。关于周克华，他们怀疑重庆警方有没有真的将其击毙，一些人说被击毙的是一名来自外地的卧底，另一些人坚称周克华是举枪自杀身亡的。

In both cases, the doubts appeared to be fed less by concrete evidence and more by an underlying mistrust of China's state media a theme touched on by a message posted to Sina Weibo on Thursday by writer Zhang Yihe.

在这两个案例中导致人们怀疑的，与其说是切实可信的证据，倒不如说是民众对官方媒体根深蒂固的不信任。作家章诒和周四在新浪微博发布的一条信息谈到了这个问题。

'Was Liu Xiang's appearance at the Olympics all just a performance? …Was that really Gu Kailai in the courtroom? Was it really Zhou Kehua who was shot to death? And on and on,' read the post, which was deleted by censors but recovered by researchers at Hong Kong University. 'This makes one think of the ancient story of the boy who cried wolf…China's propaganda machine has cranked out lies for 60 years. Now it has come to the point that anything they say is met with doubt.'

这条被审查者删除、但被香港大学(Hong Kong University)研究人员挖掘出来的微博是这样的：“一位朋友写道：刘翔的奥运表现是在做戏吗？叶诗文到底有没有服药？法庭上的谷开来是本人吗？被打死的是周克华吗？等等。这不禁让人联想起一则古老故事──狼来了！孩子只说了一次谎，就没有人相信，最后喂身于狼。中国宣传机器命大福大，说了六十多年的谎，现在终于到了每说一句话，都被人怀疑的阶段了。”