英国首相布朗(Gordon Brown)有没有欺压过下属？这个问题还处于重重争论之中，但你可以看到布朗大逞威风的样子──不过是电脑动画版。这是香港传媒大亨黎智英(Jimmy Lai)最新的新闻创意“杰作”。
Has British Prime Minister Gordon Brown bullied his staff? That is still very much in dispute, but you can watch Mr. Brown -- well, a computer animated version of him -- in full bully mode, thanks to the latest news innovation from Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
布朗推搡一名手下。布朗将另一位下属从椅子上推倒在地。布朗一拳打在车子座椅靠背上，一名助手的脑海里禁不住浮现布朗的拳头打到自己身上的情 形。
There's Mr. Brown shoving one staffer. There's Mr. Brown pushing another out of her office chair and onto the ground. There's Mr. Brown punching the back of a car seat while yet another aide, in a visualized thought bubble, imagines Mr. Brown punching him.
一个反欺凌求助热线电话的三名接线员脑海中分别浮现出布朗咆哮的样子。（布朗否认有欺凌下属的行为，求助热线的说法存在争议。）
There are three Browns yelling in three thought bubbles from three operators at an anti-bullying hotline. (Mr. Brown denies bullying staff and the hotline's claims have been disputed.)
这些可称之为“假定新闻”。黎智英名下壹传媒(Next Media Ltd.)旗下的《苹果日报》(Apple Daily)在网站上播放上述情形的电脑动画，谓之“苹果即时新闻动画更新”。不管叫什么名目，肯定日后还会有更多内容。
Call it 'hypothetical news,' or 'what-if journalism.' Apple Daily, the newspaper owned by Mr. Lai's Next Media Ltd. that is running the computer-generated enactments on its Web site, calls it 'an Apple Action News animated wrap-up.' Whatever you call it, expect more.
这个在线的动画新闻栏目是黎智英的又一创举，他一直就以推陈出新而著称。黎智英从建立成功的服装零售企业起家，后来开办一份报纸和一本周刊，均 跻身香港人气最高的报章之列，之后他又创办了二者的台湾版，同样大获成功。
The online animated news segments are a big initiative for Mr. Lai, who has a history of shaking things up. He went from founding a successful retail clothing business to starting a newspaper and a weekly magazine that both rank among Hong Kong's most popular, then replicating that success with Taiwanese versions of both publications.
黎智英极其擅长抓公众人物的小辫子，他在香港和台湾两地都曾与富豪及权势人物发生龃龉（与内地政府就更不用说了）。将严肃新闻与名人绯闻混同的 做法也令新闻纯粹主义者大光其火。
An exuberant iconoclast, he has had run-ins with the rich and powerful in both places (not to mention with China's government), and has made a virtual sport of annoying journalistic purists with his mix of hard news and celebrity gossip.
壹传媒驻台北的集团首席执行长朱华煦(Chu Wah-hui)说，去年11月“苹果即时新闻”栏目上线以来，黎智英手下的动画制作人员已经制作了1,000多个视频。朱华煦接受采访时说，苹果即时新 闻的绝大部分内容都是香港和台湾的地方新闻，不过从去年12月起，他们开始制作外国新闻的动画。
Since the Apple Action News segments began in November, Mr. Lai's animators have produced more than 1,000 videos, says Chu Wah-hui, Taipei-based Group CEO for Mr. Lai's Next Media. Most of the content is local Hong Kong and Taiwan news, Mr. Chu says in an interview, but in December they started animating foreign news as well.
在那之后，苹果即时新闻出过另外两个热门动画，一是猜测老虎伍兹(Tiger Woods)的妻子挥着高尔夫球杆砸了他的车──伍兹说没这回事，另一个则是描绘美国晚间电视节目主持人杰•莱诺(Jay Leno)和柯南•奥布莱恩(Conan O'Brien)之间的不和。
Since then, Apple Action News has had two more hits: one a speculation of an attack on Tiger Woods's car by his purportedly golf club-wielding wife -- Mr. Woods has said no such thing happened -- and another illustrated the feud between American late-night TV hosts Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien.
朱华煦说，苹果的国际动画新闻是依据外电报道等有代表性的消息来源，并遵从规范的新闻准则。他说，我们的操作与纸质媒体毫无二致。其准确与否也 跟书面报道一样，二者的整个新闻制作流程是一样的。
Mr. Chu says Apple bases its international animated news on typical sources like wire reports, and that it follows standard journalistic guidelines. 'We do it exactly the way everybody does in the print media,' he says. 'It is as accurate or inaccurate as a written report. We go through the same process.'
事实上，苹果有关布朗的动画中也插入了不少真实视频和静态照片，视频的解说说明了布朗否认这些指控。动画开头的标题为“布朗是施暴者？”，也为 视频中的内容未必真实的可能性留出了余地。
Indeed, the Apple video on the allegations against Mr. Brown intersperses its imagined animated footage with actual video and still photos, and the voiceover acknowledges that Mr. Brown has denied the charges. 'Brown the Bully?' is the opening headline, allowing for the possibility that what you're about to see may not actually be true.