Don't ask, Don't tell

我承认我有个很不好的习惯，就是喜欢看同一个新闻WP和NYT的报道有什么不同，这个毛病很不好，尤其是在这个信息极度丰富的时代，耽误多少功夫呀，少看多少八卦呀。

今天我比较的是一则有关美军是否应该废除对同性恋“不问不说”政策的新闻。以下是NYT的前三段：

The nation's top two defense officials called Tuesday for an end to the 16-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" law, a major step toward allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the United States military for the first time.

"No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens," Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

As a murmur swept through a hearing room packed with gay rights leaders, Admiral Mullen said it was his personal belief that "allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do."

下面是WP的前三段：

The Pentagon's top leaders declared Tuesday for the first time that -- after decades of opposition and equivocation from the armed forces -- they support an end to the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military.

"Speaking for myself and myself only, it is my personal belief that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. His words were echoed by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who said the Pentagon is preparing for a repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" law.

That law has stood for 17 years, but the debate over allowing gays to serve openly stretches back much further. For the tradition-bound military, the issue has proved to be intractable, with some officers arguing that the integration of openly serving gays would demoralize fellow troops, even as critics of "don't ask, don't tell" insisted that military service should be a civil right.

我不得不说，这一轮，NYT获胜。

要是我是参加这个听证会的记者，Mike Mullen那段“No matter how...”绝对是记者最喜欢的Quote呀，就算第一段用不上，那绝对是前三段的材料呀。

NYT给订户发的每日头条中都有一个Quotation of the Day，今天入选的就是Mullen这句话。NYT的文章后面提到，参议院军事委员会主席Carl Levin夸Mullen的作证有“雄辩之才”，应该赞的就是他这句。

但看看WP，它在第二段也引用了Mullen的原话，但选的这句比起来No matter how要差的远，简直令人怀疑这个记者不是脑子进水了，就是本人是个同性恋权益反对者。WP的文章更是把这句最精彩的放在了第12段，在WP网页上是第一页的最后一段，要是再多插段广告，像我这种不爱翻页的可能就根本看不着了。

说实话，我本来对这个话题压根不感兴趣，要不是NYT把这句话入选Quotation of the Day，我可能都不会点开这条新闻，可见精彩的Quotation对一篇文章来说是多么宝贵。

WP和NYT的文章后都有数百条读者评论，这些评论读起来都比文章更有趣。有一位读者说，他是个越战退伍军人，他曾经跟一些性取向不同的战友共同沐浴，但他从来没有受到骚扰，也没人试图勾引他。我猜，也可能是他姿色不够?