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All this was presumably prompted by the 20-page letter Smartmatic's lawyer sent to Fox eight days earlier, detailing a "concerted disinformation campaign against Smartmatic" on Fox's airwaves.
所有這一切大概是由8天前Smartmatic公司的律師發給福克斯的一封長達20頁的信引起的，信中詳細描述了福克斯電視臺“針對Smartmatic的聯合造謠行動”。
Soon two other Fox hosts mentioned in the letter would broadcast the same Perez video.
很快，信中提到的另外兩位福克斯主持人將播放同一段佩雷斯視頻。
Fox wasn't the only network involved: The conservative cable channels Newsmax and One America News Network, which have been trying to outflank Fox by voicing even more outlandish conspiracy theories, also received legal threats,
福克斯并不是唯一涉及到的電視臺：保守派有線電視頻道“新聞極限”和“美國第一新聞網”也受到了法律威脅，他們一直試圖通過發表更離奇的陰謀論來攻擊福克斯，
and the Newsmax anchor John Tabacco soon announced that the channel "would like to clarify its news coverage" of Smartmatic.
而新聞極限的主播約翰·塔巴科很快宣布，該頻道“希望澄清其對Smartmatic的新聞報道”。
But such clarifications evidently made little impression on the believers who, a few weeks later, stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of the election results,
但這些澄清顯然沒有給人們留下什么印象，幾周后，這些人沖進美國國會大廈，試圖阻止選舉結果的認證，
leaving conservative media with a question even more vexing and consequential than how to respond to the threat of a libel lawsuit: How far could it really follow its audience?
這留給保守派媒體一個比如何應對誹謗訴訟威脅更為惱人和重要的問題：它到底能在多大程度上追隨受眾？
Ideologically minded news organizations traditionally do well when their political rivals occupy the White House.
當政治對手入主白宮時，具有意識形態意識的新聞機構通常都會表現良好。
MSNBC saw its ratings spike during George W. Bush's presidency and again during Trump's.
微軟全國廣播公司的收視率在小布什總統任期和特朗普總統任期內都出現了飆升。
During Barack Obama's administration, Fox News rose to new ratings heights as it devoted countless hours to supposed "scandals":
在貝拉克·奧巴馬執政期間，福克斯新聞的收視率達到了新高，因為它花了無數時間報道所謂的“丑聞”：
Solyndra, the bankrupted California solar energy company; the I.R.S., accused of targeting conservative groups for scrutiny; Benghazi.
破產的加州太陽能公司Solyndra；被指控針對保守派進行審查的國稅局；以及班加西。
But the even more outlandish Obama-era claims tended to get significantly less airtime on Fox.
但是，奧巴馬時代更古怪的說法往往會大大減少福克斯電視臺的播音時間。
It was Donald Trump, during his guest appearances on "Fox and Friends" and other Fox shows, who banged the drum of birtherism; the network's own stars largely steered clear.
唐納德·特朗普在《福克斯與朋友們》和其他福克斯電視臺節目中客串亮相，吹響了“出生論”的號角；該電視臺的明星們基本上都避開了這一話題。
When conspiracy theorists claimed online that Obama planned to use a military training operation to declare martial law in Texas, Fox covered the kerfuffle mostly to dismiss or even mock it.
當陰謀論者在網上聲稱奧巴馬計劃利用軍事訓練行動在得克薩斯州宣布戒嚴時，福克斯報道了這場混戰，主要是為了駁斥甚至嘲笑它。
The network understood that it could spend all day pushing scandals, even tendentious ones, but there were still some things better left to wilder precincts.
他們明白，它可以花一整天的時間來推動丑聞，甚至是有傾向性的丑聞，但仍有一些地方最好要留給更瘋狂的領域。
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