又中又英 | Dead cat strategy | 褚简宁

　　Imagine a group of people sitting at a dinner table discussing a scandal about a politician that continues to dominate the news. Then imagine the politician suddenly appearing to throw a dead cat on the dining table among the dishes of food. What would the people at the table do? They would be so shocked that they would forget about the scandal affecting the politician and discuss the dead cat instead. This is called the dead cat strategy, also known as deadcatting. 

　　The dead cat strategy is a political tactic to deliberately introduce a shocking or attention-grabbing event to shift media and public focus away from the original issue, such as a scandal. Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is said to have used the dead cat strategy several times after the media reported that he and his staff had parties at the garden of 10 Downing Street, the office and residence of British prime ministers, during the 2020 Covid lockdown. The media, opposition parties, and the public continued to focus on the scandal. Johnson unsuccessfully tried several dead cat strategies, including proposing to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

　　But the lockdown parties and other scandals eventually forced him to resign. US President Donald Trump is also using dead cat strategies to divert continuous media attention on the scandal involving his past friendship with multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein, a child sex offender who victimized numerous young girls. Epstein was found dead by hanging in prison in 2019 before his trial. Trump's unsuccessful dead cat strategies included accusing former President Barack Obama of treason to divert demands for him to release the Epstein files said to contain a list of powerful friends of Epstein who partied with underaged girls.

　　试想像一下，一群人正围坐饭桌旁，讨论着一个政客的相关丑闻，该丑闻一直霸占新闻篇幅。再想像，该政客突然出现，向着满桌食物的饭桌丢一只死猫，那一桌人会怎样做？他们会震惊得立时忘掉那桩影响政客的丑闻，转为谈论那只死猫。这就叫作 dead cat strategy，或称为deadcatting。

　　Dead cat strategy是一种刻意引入一项震惊或引人注意的事情，以从原有的议题例如丑闻上转移传媒与大众的焦点。当传媒报道，前英国首相鲍里斯．约翰逊和他的员工于2020年新冠肺炎封城抗疫期间，在唐宁街十号，就是英国首相官邸与办公室的花园辧派对后，约翰逊就被认为曾数度使用死猫策略（dead cat strategies）。传媒、反对党及公众却仍继续专注在丑闻之上。约翰逊几度尝试运用死猫策略（dead cat strategies）但不果，包括提议将寻求政治庇护者送往卢旺达。

　　然而，这个封城下的派对以及其他丑闻最终逼使他辞任。美国总统特朗普也有运用死猫策略（dead cat strategies），去引开传媒对他过往与亿万富豪谢菲．爱泼斯坦情谊的关注，爱泼斯坦是个侵犯儿童的性罪犯，令无数年轻女孩受害。爱泼斯坦于2019年，在其审讯前被发现上吊死亡。特朗普不成功的死猫策略（dead cat strategies）包括指控前总统巴拉克．奥巴马叛国，以转移外界促他公开爱泼斯坦档案的要求，而档案是包含了爱泼斯坦那些找未成年少女寻欢、具势力的朋友名单。

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Michael Chugani褚简宁
中译：七刻