????過去八個月，英國已經對年逾八旬的傳媒大亨魯珀特?默多克進行了審判——通過一位代理人。本周二，這位代理人、長著火紅頭發的麗貝卡?布魯克斯被撤消了四項串謀指控，無罪開釋。幾十年來，布魯克斯曾經擔任主編的兩家小報一直讓英國政府寢食難安。

????此前，因涉嫌在擔任《世界新聞報》(News of the World)總編期間竊聽富豪和名流（直至并包括哈里王子）的手機，賄賂政府官員，隨后試圖掩蓋這些行為等罪行，布魯克斯被正式起訴?！妒澜缧侣剤蟆肥且环萦顾椎男瞧谌請蠹垼瞄L曝光名人隱私。

????然而，在公眾輿論看來，受審的其實是默多克商業帝國的精神特質、新聞集團(News Corp)旗下的煽情小報，以及它們在上世紀80年代和90年代令人震驚的政治權力。在新聞業被互聯網和數字技術改變得面目全非之前，這些煽情小報曾經是這個集團的主要利潤中心。

????在這些小報的鼎力幫助下，撒切爾夫人及其繼任者曾經讓奉行中間偏左政策的工黨在近20年的時間里無法獲得執政權力——在保守黨獲得某次選舉勝利后，《太陽報》(The Sun)趾高氣揚地寫下一個著名的標題：“勝出的是《太陽報》?！焙髞恚捎诓豢叭淌鼙Ｊ攸h的自毀政策，默多克最終推動這份報紙改弦易幟，開始支持工黨領袖托尼?布萊爾。此外，讓布萊爾的政黨、選民和其他公眾深感羞愧的是，他的數家報紙曾經在2003年狂熱支持伊拉克戰爭。

????當布魯克斯和她在《世界新聞報》的繼任者安迪?庫爾森因竊聽電話和賄賂而接受審判時，自由派感覺到，要想讓默多克為英國公共生活過去30年來的退化和粗俗化付出代價，同時打破他對英國當權者的控制，這是最后一次機會。周二的裁決肯定會讓他們倍感失望。

????最終承擔責任、面臨牢獄之災的是庫爾森。陪審團已經接受了布魯克斯的辯詞：盡管她當時跟庫爾森有染，但她對自己報社內的犯罪文化一無所知。其他四位被告，包括布魯克斯的丈夫、秘書和保安主管，也被撤消了所有指控。

????工黨正在跟現任保守黨首相戴維?卡梅倫進行一場公關拉鋸戰，庫爾森的定罪將讓他們輕松地占據上風。當初，庫爾森離開《世界新聞報》僅僅幾周之后，卡梅倫就任命他為自己的媒體主管。

????但他們真正想要的是布魯克斯，新聞集團英國報紙業務的實際負責人。默多克曾經說她是自己“最重要的助手”。一旦布魯克斯被定罪，默多克絕對脫不了干系。長久以來，被艦隊街稱為“丑聞挖掘器(Dirty Digger)”的默多克似乎有魔法護身?，F在，這個神一樣的存在看起來正在安詳地邁向夕陽的余輝之中。（財富中文網）

????譯者：葉寒

????For the last eight months, the UK has had the octogenarian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch on trial by proxy. On Tuesday, that proxy–the flame-haired Rebekah Brooks, former editor of two tabloids that have terrified decades of British governments–walked free, cleared on four charges of conspiracy.

????Brooks had officially been on trial for hacking the cellphones of the rich and famous (upto and including Prince Harry), bribing public officials and then trying to cover up the traces of those acts while she was editor of the News of the World, a lurid Sunday newspaper specialising in the kiss-and-tell secrets of celebrities.

????However, in the court of public opinion, what was on trial was the very ethos of Murdoch’s business empire, the sensationalist tabloids that had been News Corp’s NWS main profit center before the internet and digital technology changed the news business beyond recognition, and their astonishing political power during the 1980s and 1990s.

????Those tabloids had helped Margaret Thatcher and her successors keep the center-left Labour Party out of power for nearly 20 years (“It’s The Sun Wot Won It”, it famously crowed after one Conservative victory). Seeing the Tories self-destruct, Murdoch eventually changed sides and threw the weight of The Sun behind Labour’s Tony Blair, and his papers were enthusiastic supporters of the Iraq war in 2003, to the mortification of Blair’s party, voters and, ultimately, the rest of the public.

????When Brooks and her successor at the News of the World, Andy Coulson, came to trial for phone-hacking and bribery, liberals sensed it would be the last chance to avenge–as they saw it–Murdoch’s degradation and coarsening of British public life over 30 years, and to break his apparent hold on the UK establishment. Their hopes will have been disappointed by Tuesday’s verdicts.

????The buck has stopped at Coulson, who now faces jail. The jury has accepted Brooks’s defense that, despite having an affair with Coulson at the time, she knew nothing of the culture of criminality at the paper she was running. Four other defendants, including Brooks’s husband, secretary and head of security, were also cleared of all charges.

????Coulson’s conviction will allow the Labour Party to score some easy PR points off the current Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, who made Coulson his head of communications only weeks after he left the News of the World.

????But it was Brooks they wanted. Brooks, whom Murdoch had trusted implicitly with his UK newspaper business; whom he had called his “top priority”; and from whom he could not possibly have distanced himself in the event of a guilty verdict. The ‘Dirty Digger’, as Fleet Street knows him, has often seemed to lead a charmed existence. It’s an existence which looks like heading off serenely into the sunset now.