纽约时报 保守派媒体恶有恶报(3)

Now that Fox is preparing for a Biden administration, the same muscle memory is kicking in.

现在福克斯正在准备如何对拜登政府进行报道，同样的肌肉记忆也开始出现了。

The business dealings of Biden's son Hunter and his brother James have given rise to myriad Fox reports about a "Biden crime family,"

拜登儿子亨特和拜登弟弟詹姆斯的生意往来使得福克斯发布了许多关于“拜登犯罪家族”报道，

and the network has become preoccupied with Biden's age, with a "medical contributor" appearing on Tucker Carlson's show to talk about atrial fibrillation and cognitive decline.

而且福克斯还开始关注拜登的年龄，一位“医学撰稿人”参加了塔克·卡尔森的节目，谈论了房颤和认知能力下降的问题。

What's impossible to imagine, though, is how small-bore scandals can possibly satisfy an audience that now thinks an entire presidency has been stolen.

但让人无法想象的是，无聊的丑闻能否让那些认为总统职位被窃取的人感到满意。

Indeed, since Trump's defeat, many conservative-news consumers have abandoned the comparably more staid precincts of Fox for OANN and Newsmax;

事实上，自从特朗普失败后，许多保守派新闻读者已经放弃了福克斯相对更为稳定的报道，转而选择了“美国第一新闻网”和“新闻极限”；

in the month after the election, Newsmax viewership rose 497 percent between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., while Fox suffered a 38 percent decline.

在大选后的一个月里，“新闻极限”的收视率在下午4点到8点之间上升了497%，而福克斯的收视率下降了38%。

The demand among conservative-news consumers for the unhinged is obviously high.

在保守派新闻读者中，精神错乱者的需求显然很高。

For the past four years, Trump has not only met that demand; he has steadily increased it.

过去四年，特朗普不仅满足了这一需求，而且稳步增加了这一需求。

Now, with his claims of a landslide electoral win, he has crossed a line that conservative media is asked to cross, too, lest it be left behind.

如今，他宣称选举获得压倒性胜利，其实他已经越过了保守派媒体被要求越过的界限，唯恐被落在后面。

It's one thing for conservatives to believe Biden is corrupt or hopelessly senile, but to believe that his election is patently fraudulent goes far beyond the outer edges of even toxic partisanship:

保守派认为拜登腐败或老态龙钟是一回事，但认为他的选举明显存在欺诈行为的话，就远远超出了有害的党派之争：

It invites extreme responses, like excusing, if not endorsing, a siege of the Capitol.

它会招致极端的反应，比如说，如果不支持的话，就可以为包围国会山开脱。