年度政治谎言大全

The Lies Heard Round the World

年度政治谎言大全

DURHAM, N.C. — LYING may be an age-old part of politics, but it’s becoming easier to spot the fibs, fictions and falsehoods. A growing army of fact-checkers around the world is busy debunking falsehoods from presidents, prime ministers and pundits — and if their results are indicative, 2014 was a banner year. Some of the claims were so absurd that fact-checking groups honored them with awards, like Australia’s Golden Zombie and Italy’s Insane Whopper of the Year.

北卡罗来纳州达勒姆——说谎或许在很早之前就是政治的一部分，但现在辨别假话、谎言和不实之辞已经变得越来越容易。世界上的事实核查队伍不断壮大，他们在忙着揭穿个各国总统、总理及专家的谎言，如果他们的结果具有指示性，那2014年就是标志性的一年。其中一些谎言非常荒谬，事实核查小组给他们授予了奖项，比如澳大利亚的金僵尸奖(Golden Zombie)和意大利的年度弥天大谎奖(Insane Whopper of the Year)。

Such lies are fun to read, but identifying them is serious business: Misinformation, unchecked, can turn elections, undermine public health efforts and even lead countries into war.

这样的谎言读起来很有趣，但辨别谎言却是一个严肃的事情：未经核实的错误消息能够改变选举，破坏公共卫生项目，甚至还会导致国家陷入战争。

Italy

意大利

“Nigeria, you can read about it on Wikipedia: 60 percent of its territory is controlled by Boko Haram, the remaining part is Ebola.”

“维基百科(Wikipedia)上说，尼日利亚60%的领土被博科哈拉姆(Boko Haram，旧译博科圣地)控制，剩下的则是埃博拉疫情爆发区。”

This ridiculous claim, made by Alessandro Di Battista, vice president of the Committee on Foreign Relations in Italy’s Chamber of Deputies and a rising star in the Five Star Movement party, won the Insane Whopper of the Year award from the website Pagella Politica. Fact-checkers found that while the terrorist group Boko Haram has spread, it does not control a single Nigerian state, let alone 60 percent of the entire nation. And the number of Ebola cases in the country was tiny — just 20.

这一荒谬言论出自意大利众议院(Chamber of Deputies)外交关系委员会副主席、五星运动党(Five Star Movement)新星亚历山德罗 ·迪巴蒂斯塔(Alessandro Di Battista)，因此Pagella Politica网站将年度弥天大谎奖授予了迪巴蒂斯塔。事实核查者发现，虽然恐怖组织博科哈拉姆不断扩展控制范围，但它没有控制任何一个州，更不用说 60%的国土。该国的埃博拉病例也很少——只有20例。

Europe

欧洲

“The E.U. wants to ban double-slot toasters.”

“欧盟想要禁用双槽烤面包机。”

This claim about the overreach of the European Union came from newspapers in Italy and Britain. The Daily Express said: “The British way of life is under fresh threat from the E.U. as it targets the nation’s kettles, toasters and even lawn mowers.” FactCheckEU, a watchdog group, dug into the details and found no plans to ban toasters, only to improve their energy efficiency. It rated the claim “Rather Daft.”

这个有关欧盟(European Union)过分之举的谎言出自意大利及英国的报纸。《每日快报》(Daily Express)报道称，“英国的生活方式面临欧盟带来的新威胁，欧盟把英国的壶、烤面包机，甚至割草机当作目标。”监察组织FactCheckEU深入研究细节，结果发现欧盟没有禁用烤面包机的计划，只是想要提高它们的能效。该组织认为这个谎言“相当愚蠢”。

Africa

非洲

Ebola is cured by eating kola nuts or bathing in warm, salty water.

吃可乐果、用加盐的温水泡澡可以治愈埃博拉。

The fact-checking group AfricaCheck included several claims about Ebola cures and other quackery in its “2014 in Review” compilation. Blogs and text messages in Nigeria had spread claims that a warm, salty bath would cure Ebola, while a newspaper spread rumors that eating kola nuts would stop the disease. AfricaCheck said, “The cures being touted online and in newspapers are little more than cruel and unethical hoaxes.”

事实核查组织AfricaCheck将几个有关埃博拉治疗方法及其他江湖医术的谎言纳入了他们汇编的《回顾2014》(2014 in Review)。在尼日利亚，博客和短信息中流传这样一个说法，即用加盐的温水泡澡能治疗埃博拉，而一家报纸则传播谣言称，吃可乐果可以治愈该疾病。 AfricaCheck称，“网上和报纸吹捧的这些治疗方法基本上就是一种残酷、不道德的恶作剧。”

Australia

澳大利亚

“Over six years, Labor ran up a $667 billion debt.”

“在过去六年中，工党积欠了6670亿美元(约合4.18万亿元人民币)的债务。”

This statement won ABC Fact Check’s Golden Zombie, which the Australian Broadcasting Corporation gives to the year’s most persistent falsehood that, “despite being killed off by fact-checkers, lurches back to life.” The claim was made by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who accused the previous ruling party of leaving the country drowning in red ink. But the fact-checking group found that that statement relied on some misleading math: It is a 10-year projection from 2013 that even includes debt already on the books when Labor took over.

这一谎言获得了澳大利亚广播公司(Australian Broadcasting Corporation，简称ABC)真相核查(Fact Check)团队授予的金僵尸奖，ABC通常会将这个奖项给予本年度最具活力的谎言，“这种谎言尽管已被真相核查者揭穿，但仍会死灰复燃。”该言论出自澳大利亚总理托尼·阿博特(Tony Abbott)，阿博特指责前执政党导致澳大利亚陷入赤字。但该事实核查小组发现，这个说法源于一些颇具误导性的数学运算：这是对2013年之后十年的债务的估算，其中甚至包括工党执政之前已经存在的债务。

United States

美国

Exaggerations about Ebola

有关埃博拉的夸大之词

Rather than name a single falsehood, PolitiFact (which one of us, Bill Adair, founded) honored the many falsehoods and exaggerations about Ebola, including the claim by the columnist George F. Will that the disease can be spread by sneezing or coughing (false), the claim by Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, that Ebola is “incredibly contagious” (mostly false), and a Georgia congressman’s statement that there were reports of people carrying Ebola across the southern border of the United States (so ridiculously wrong we rated it “Pants on Fire” — not remotely true).

政治事实(PolitiFact，由本文作者之一比尔·阿代尔[Bill Adair]创立)则不只挑出了一个谎言，而是将荣誉授予很多关于埃博拉的谎言和夸大之词，比如专栏作家乔治·F·威尔(George F. Will)所说的，埃博拉会通过打喷嚏或咳嗽传染(错误)，肯塔基州共和党参议员兰德·保罗(Rand Paul)说的，埃博拉具有“高度传染性”(基本上是错误的)，佐治亚州一名国会众议员说的，有报道称埃博拉病毒携带者跨越了美国的南部边境(极其荒谬，我们将其评为“彻头彻尾之谎言”——与真相差太远)。

United States

美国

That Evan Jenkins, a Republican running for a House seat in West Virginia, vowed to repeal black lung benefits.

在西佛吉尼亚州竞选众议院席位的共和党人埃文·詹金斯(Evan Jenkins)誓言要废除尘肺病福利。

FactCheck.org said this claim, from a liberal super PAC, was a common tactic used by Democrats in congressional campaigns — asserting that a Republican’s support for repealing the Affordable Care Act meant that he also opposed every provision of the law.

FactCheck.org网站表示，这种来自一个自由派“超级政治行动委员会”(super PAC，简称“超级PAC”)的说法是民主党人在国会竞选中的惯用策略——认为只要一名共和党人支持废除《合理医疗费用法案》(Affordable Care Act)，就意味着此人同样反对该法案的每个条款。

In this case, the repeal of the act would not “repeal black lung benefits.” It would have changed the eligibility requirements for people suffering from black lung disease, not ended the program. In fact, Mr. Jenkins said he supported those benefits.

在这个案例中，废除法案并不会“废除尘肺病福利”。它只会针对尘肺病患者改变领取这项福利的资格标准，而非终止这个项目。实际上，詹金斯曾表示，自己支持这些福利。

Uruguay

乌拉圭

“Today Uruguay is the first country in Latin America without overcrowding in prisons.”

“如今，乌拉圭是拉丁美洲第一个监狱里不人满为患的国家。”

The readers of the website UYCheck chose this claim by Lucía Topolansky, a senator and the wife of President José Mujica, as its lie of the year.

网站UYCheck的读者把这个来自乌拉圭总统何塞·穆希卡(José Mujica)的妻子、参议员露西亚·托波兰斯基(Lucía Topolansky)的说法选做了网站的年度谎言。

UYCheck found that there had been some reduction of prison populations, but that the country had a long way to go before it could eliminate “overcrowding.”

UYCheck发现，虽然监狱人口在一定程度上减少了，但乌拉圭距离消除“人满为患”还有很长一段路要走。

United States

美国

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, “did meet with ISIS, and had his picture taken, and didn’t know it was happening at the time.”

亚利桑那州共和党参议员约翰·麦凯恩(John McCain)“确实与ISIS见了面，并被拍了照，但他当时并不了解情况”。

Senator Paul, a possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate, repeated this Internet rumor during a September interview with The Daily Beast. But the photo actually showed Mr. McCain with members of the Free Syrian Army, an enemy of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Glenn Kessler, who writes The Washington Post’s Fact Checker column, gave the claim four Pinocchios, his worst rating.

参议员保罗可能会成为2016年的共和党总统候选人。9月，他在接受《每日野兽》(The Daily Beast)采访时再次提到了这个网络谣言。但是，照片显示的其实是麦凯恩与叙利亚自由军(Free Syrian Army)成员在一起。叙利亚自由军是伊斯兰国(亦称ISIS)的敌人。为《华盛顿邮报》(The Washington Post)撰写“事实核查”专栏(Fact Checker)的格伦·凯斯勒(Glenn Kessler)给了这个说法四个“匹诺曹”(他用这个指数衡量谎言——译注)，这是他给出的最糟评价。