It has certainly been a busy day for those involved in the Sony Pictures hacking scandal. Most of the key players have made statements and the Sunday talk shows were full of political faces sharing quotes on the situation. The primary focus was on President Obama and his sit down with Candy Crowley over at CNN. Obama went into detail about how he would’ve responded had Sony reached out to him before deciding to cancel The Interview. From The Hollywood Reporter:
He told Candy Crowley that, had he been in contact with Sony execs, he could have personally reached out to the theater chains that dropped the film after hackers threatened a 9/11-style attack.
“I was pretty sympathetic to the fact that they have business considerations that they got to make,” Obama said about Sony. “Had they talked to me directly about this decision, I might have called the movie theater chains and distributors and asked them what the story was.”
Obama said he does not consider the hack to be an act of war. “I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive,” he said. “We take it very seriously. We will respond proportionately, as I said.”
Meanwhile, Sony almost instantly responded through their lawyer over on NBC’s Meet The Press, echoing the sentiments of Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton:
“Sony only delayed this,” Boies said. “Sony has been fighting to get this picture distributed. It will be distributed. How it’s going to be distributed, I don’t think anybody knows quite yet. But it’s going to be distributed.” (via)
Fair to say that the public is going to get to see this movie at some point, be it legally or with some outside help. That doesn’t change the facts of what has already happened and how it transcends the needs to release a film into theaters. That’s where Senator John McCain comes in, back on CNN’s State of The Union to respond to President Obama. From Variety:
“The president does not understand that this is … a manifestation of a new form of warfare,” McCain told Candy Crowley. “When you destroy economies, when you are able to impose censorship on the world and especially the United States of America it’s more than vandalism.”
“It’s a new form of warfare that we’re involved in and we need to react and react vigorously, including reimposing sanctions that were lifted under the Bush administration, including other actions and that will squeeze them for economically. But most of all, we have to really work together with the President and the Congress to come up with counters and abilities to respond, but more importantly to prevent.”
Good to know we’re keeping the politics out of this one. Luckily, when you boil it down to bare bones here, it’s nothing but a lot of talk from all sides. Just cementing opinions that were already mentioned before and keeping the ideas floating out there. At least for now.
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(Via The Hollywood Reporter / Variety)
