特朗普为何频繁攻击主流媒体？

When President Donald Trump first called the media "enemy of the people" last year, it elicited outrage. Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake said it was an example of an "uNPRecedented" and "unwarranted" White House assault on the free press.

当美国总统唐纳德·特朗普去年首次把媒体称为“人民的敌人”时，引起了人民的愤怒。亚利桑那州共和党参议员杰夫·弗莱克说，这是一个“前所未有”且“毫无根据”的白宫袭击新闻自由的例子。

The second, third and fourth times Mr Trump used the phrase, it barely merited a shrug. Such is the unique talent of this president - an ability to take an action or opinion that once seemed outrageous and turn it into a new kind of normal.

当特朗普第二次，第三次和第四次用这句话袭击媒体时，人们已经不以为然。这就是这位总统的独特才能 - 他能够采取行动，发表意见，这种行动或意见曾经过于令人发指，但他却能将其变成一种新常态。

Even if the line doesn’t generate headlines anymore, however, journalists still take note.

然而，即使这句话不再成为头条新闻，记者仍然会注意到它。

New York Times publisher AG Sulzberger clearly wanted to drive this point home in his previously secret meeting with Mr Trump nine days ago.

纽约时报出版商AG Sulzberger显然希望在九天前与特朗普先生秘密会面时将这一点充分有效地说清楚。

The message, however, may not have been received. In his Sunday morning tweet, the president appears to assert that it’s the media’s fault that he has decided to label them "enemies of the American people".

但是，（特朗普）可能并没有领会到。在周日早上的推文中，这位总统断言他将媒体称为“美国人民的敌人”实际上是媒体的错。

For Mr Trump, then, this kind of language - if it is a problem - is a problem for the media, not him, to fix.

对于特朗普来说，这种语言 - 如果是一个问题的话，也是媒体应该解决的问题，而不是他的问题。

The irony, of course, is that Mr Trump cites New York Times reports about details of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation that are based on anonymous sources.

具有讽刺意味的是，特朗普先生引用了《纽约时报》关于罗伯特·穆勒（Robert Mueller）的俄罗斯调查的详细信息的报道，称这些调查基于匿名消息来源。

On Friday, he referred to the special counsel looking at his tweets - a bit of information drawn directly from a Times article.

星期五，他让特别顾问查看他的推文，上面又一些直接摘自一篇《纽约时报》文章的信息。

Whenever the Times runs a story about his administration with similar sourcing, however, it’s "fake news".

然而，每当《纽约时报》以类似的消息来源报道有关特朗普的政府的内容时，都会被他称为“假新闻”。

And this gets to the heart of the matter.

这触及了问题的核心。

The president wants positive news coverage for himself and critical coverage of his adversaries. "Fake news", "enemy of the people" and all the other media-bashing is simply a means to achieving that goal.

总统希望对自己的报道是积极的，而对他的对手的报道是批评性的。 “假新闻”，“人民的敌人”和所有其他媒体抨击只是实现这一目标的手段。

In sport, the strategy is called "working the referee". It’s the same idea in politics - but the stakes are much higher.

在体育运动中，该策略被称为“影响裁判决定”。这在政治上是一样的 - 但赌注要高得多。

There’s more to it than that, however. Mr Trump doesn’t just want the referee’s "calls" to go his way. His goal is to question the reliability the referee entirely. And it’s working - at least among the president’s most loyal supporters.

然而，除了上述，还有其它。特朗普先生不仅希望裁判的“裁决”符合他的意愿。他的目标是完全质疑裁判的可靠性。而这显然是有效的，至少对总统最忠诚的支持者有效。

In a recent CBS News poll, 91% of "strong supporters" of the president’s said they trust Mr Trump to provide them with accurate information. Only 11% said the same thing about the "mainstream media", while 63% said they trusted their own "friends and family".

在最近的哥伦比亚广播公司新闻调查中，91％的总统的“坚定支持者”表示，他们相信特朗普能够向他们提供准确的信息。只有11％的人认为“主流媒体”可信，而63％的人表示他们更信任自己的“朋友和家人”。

The president’s war of words with the media has contributed to a base of support that is, effectively, invulnerable to negative news.

总统与媒体的言论之争促成了一种对他有利基础，即他在负面新闻面前可以无懈可击。

The question now is whether that base is enough to prevail in the upcoming mid-term congressional elections and, eventually, carry him to re-election victory in 2020.

现在的问题是，这个基数是否在即将到来的中期国会选举中对他有效，并最终使他在2020年再次当选。