Clooney's Right
Clooney told Deadline Hollywood:
Forget the hacking part of it. You have someone threaten to blow up buildings, and all of a sudden everybody has to bow down. Sony didn't pull the movie because they were scared; they pulled the movie because all the theaters said they were not going to run it. And they said they were not going to run it because they talked to their lawyers and those lawyers said if somebody dies in one of these, then you're going to be responsible.We have a new paradigm, a new reality, and we're going to have to come to real terms with it all the way down the line. This was a dumb comedy that was about to come out. With the First Amendment, you're never protecting Jefferson; it's usually protecting some guy who's burning a flag or doing something stupid. This is a silly comedy, but the truth is, what it now says about us is a whole lot. We have a responsibility to stand up against this. That's not just Sony, but all of us, including my good friends in the press who have the responsibility to be asking themselves: What was important? What was the important story to be covering here? The hacking is terrible because of the damage they did to all those people. Their medical records, that is a horrible thing, their Social Security numbers. Then, to turn around and threaten to blow people up and kill people, and just by that threat alone we change what we do for a living, that's the actual definition of terrorism.
Nobody took a stand. Here's the petition Hollywood wouldn't sign:
On November 24 of this year, Sony Pictures was notified that it was the victim of a cyber attack, the effects of which is the most chilling and devastating of any cyber attack in the history of our country. Personal information including Social Security numbers, email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers and the full texts of emails of tens of thousands of Sony employees was leaked online in an effort to scare and terrorize these workers. The hackers have made both demands and threats. The demand that Sony halt the release of its upcoming comedy The Interview, a satirical film about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Their threats vary from personal--you better behave wisely--to threatening physical harm--not only you but your family is in danger. North Korea has not claimed credit for the attack but has praised the act, calling it a righteous deed and promising merciless measures if the film is released. Meanwhile the hackers insist in their statement that what they've done so far is only a small part of our further plan. This is not just an attack on Sony. It involves every studio, every network, every business and every individual in this country. That is why we fully support Sony's decision not to submit to these hackers' demands. We know that to give in to these criminals now will open the door for any group that would threaten freedom of expression, privacy and personal liberty. We hope these hackers are brought to justice but until they are, we will not stand in fear. We will stand together.
Hollywood has a problem: how to take a stand against terrorism after having methodically characterized terror against the West as a call on us to ask ourselves "Why do they hate us?", and to surrender.
Lastango at December 19, 2014 11:41 PM
The man's a fricking movie star: That's the quintessence of robotic, emotion-grinding populism.
Yet whaddayanoe!: A Hollywood leading man, perhaps for the first time since Duke died, has asked people to be courageous.
…Not to imagine themselves to already be courageous, which is the way the industry works, but to take that extra step which (possibly) includes unpleasantness…
And his people aren't up to it.
The man appears to have lived the lefty life, but he deserves sincere props for his effort in this moment.
Also, Clayton was a good, three-star film.
Also, I bet he still thinks about Balitran when he's in the shower.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 20, 2014 1:29 AM
What "new paradigm"?
It's not like a "stupid comedy" such as South Park didn't cave into pulling an episode which included a Prophet Muhammad character, or many publications didn't re-print satirical cartoons of The Prophet wearing a turban turned into a bomb. Likewise, running onto stage to throw a pie at a conservative speaker ended when Ann Coulter's escorts (who were College Republican Women) broke one guy's arm.
It has been known for years that liberals will yield to any "Heckler's Veto" if the person objecting will fight for their beliefs. The only paradigm shown is another example of Progressives attempting to disguise cowardice as principle.
Wfjag at December 20, 2014 2:57 AM
Thanks for pointing out how this is all on the 'lefty' and 'liberal' side of things. Because the folks on the right/red states would surely have dealt with this differently.
But, whatever makes you feel better about yourself, because America, hell yeah! Those pussies on the other side!
Do you think the rest of the world makes the same distinctions?
At the end of the day, SPE's decision was all about the money, and that is the American way, red state or blue.
DrCos at December 20, 2014 5:13 AM
I live in a red state and am simply laughing at our "betters" in Hollyweird.
Frankly, I had already crossed this movie off my list of things to waste my time on. Well, that is the default mode for most of the stuff coming out in that particular source of entertainment, so don't feel too bad, Seth Rogen and James Flacco. Franco, Frankie, whateves.
What Sony could have done was put the film up on Pirate Bay and let it go. That would have taken some actual intestinal fortitude. It isn't like they'll recoup the money already spent. Let the pirates do the dirty work for them, and see if Anonymous would come to their aid.
I R A Darth Aggie at December 20, 2014 6:37 AM
Isnt the Pirate Bay offline? Could have sworn I saw that in my newsfeed last week
lujlp at December 20, 2014 7:37 AM
> Thanks for pointing out how this is
> all on the 'lefty' and 'liberal'
> side of things.
Not a problem! Seriously, they made it very, very easy for us, so I don't want you to think that gratuitous expressions of thanks are necessary.
But I gotta tell ya, Scooterbunny, that it would probably be best to keep the masturbatory counterfactuals—
> the folks on the right/red states
> would surely have dealt with this
> differently.
—to an absolute minimum. Who knows how "red states" might have handled this?
It didn't happen that way.
It COULDN'T have happened that way.... There are no meaningful currents of conservative thought in an industry composed to stroke emotions, and disposed to do so abjectly. (…Outside of the accounting departments, where all of the sudden everyone's wearing dark neckties and talking coherently.)
What happened to them was a bad thing, but Sony's denizens and cohort are being mocked because they deserve to be. They've very specifically earned this.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 20, 2014 10:04 AM
> What Sony could have done was put the
> film up on Pirate Bay and let it go.
I can't understand why people say things like that.
The film is an asset. It didn't come to them for free... They spent money on it.
I like funny movies. I want to see this movie, I wanna love it, and I want to pay the people who made it. I want them to have the money to hire the cleverest actors, the prettiest girls, the best lighting designers and the nicest craft services team for bagels on the studio set. And I want all those people to do whatever they want with their income.
And I want them NOT to worry that their profits are playthings, instantly and whimsical revocable by distant daydreamers in their own country. And I want you to keep your hands off my paycheck, too.
Why do goofs so shamelessly daydream about vacating the multi-million dollar investments of a corporation in which they have no stake?
It's fucking madness. And from people claiming to be conservatives, it's animal savagery.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 20, 2014 10:13 AM
I wonder if American Sniper is going to air. Plenty of unpleasantness inside.
Should have its own "trigger warning"...
Radwaste at December 20, 2014 11:32 AM
I didn't have any plans to see the movie before this incident. But now I will surely go if I ever get the chance, if only to say "fuck you" to North Korea.
Gail at December 20, 2014 12:25 PM
Why do goofs so shamelessly daydream about vacating the multi-million dollar investments of a corporation in which they have no stake?
Because the studio voluntarily vacated it first?
If I were their insurance carrier I wouldnt pay a dime, that they chose not to air it because they failed to properly protect their computer files against hackers who are now blackmailing them is probably not a standard insurance claim.
They could just as easily drop it on itunes for $5 bucks and sell it cheaper than I would pay for a theater ticket, more than what the theater would reimburse them, and make more money encouraging people to tell North Korea and Kim whatereve to fuck off than it would have made them over the next ten years had none of this happened
lujlp at December 20, 2014 12:31 PM
And whiel were on the subject of piracy, I dont think studios should be forced to give away content for free, and in movies, music, ect.
The thing I dont understand is their opposition to torrents of over air TV and TV movie broadcasts. With DVR its not like any of us are watching the ads anyway.
So why block TV shows? DVD rips, I can see protesting, why TV show with all the station ID and upcoming show banners?
lujlp at December 20, 2014 12:54 PM
And [all the theaters] said they were not going to run it because they talked to their lawyers and those lawyers said if somebody dies in one of these, then you're going to be responsible.
It's not North Korean thugs that strike fear into the heart of businesses.
And it's not al Qaeda.
It's American lawyers.
JD at December 20, 2014 1:15 PM
JD at December 20, 2014 1:15 PM
☑
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 20, 2014 1:41 PM
I'm not a fan of the movie industry (to say the least), but I don't understand why Sony gets conflated with "Hollywood" here.
It's a Tokyo-based multinational conglomerate; movies are just a small part of its output. I have no doubt the SoCal division is headed by a pack of shits, but I also have no idea who made the decision not to distribute the movie; it well could have been Japan.
Kevin at December 20, 2014 2:22 PM
That's true, and Japan-vs.-Korea is one of the angles of this for us to explore in terms of the politics.
Nonetheless, Sony (nee Colombia) is an old and powerful presence in Hollywood's industry, one of the main players for most of a century. If people are pulling strings for corporate reasons/whatnot, well, they shouldn't. Clooney may well be correct that their attorneys, demanding caution to protect business partners and filmgoers, are on the side of the angels.
But to capitulate so timidly to what may turn out to be some teenage tricksters with a laptop on Guam is just not acceptable for an enterprise of that centrality to the American identity. And I wouldn't feel much better about that if it was a small lawn-furniture manufacturer in Tennessee.
Perhaps to answer your point more directly, consider the wording of the Clooney document: It was composed to speak for Hollywood-the-industry, not Sony-the-stakeholder.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 20, 2014 3:04 PM
There's going to be a remake:
http://www.joeydevilla.com/2014/12/20/larry-flynt-announces-a-porn-parody-of-the-interview/
Steve Daniels at December 20, 2014 3:04 PM
> I didn't have any plans to see
> the movie before this
Agree. But OK, you get the parking and I'll cover the tickets & popcorn.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 20, 2014 3:53 PM
The great thing about the hacks is the back and forth e-mails that nobody really wants to see black people on screen and that male actors are better than actresses because they are male.
Ppen at December 20, 2014 4:59 PM
Clooney's right; but, doesn't go far enough.
That folks are seeing this as giving in to the threats from hackers; what do they think will happen when Obama, who just gave away the farm to Cuba, gives in to let Iran get nuclear weapons?
charles at December 20, 2014 5:23 PM
> The great thing about the hacks
> is the back and forth e-mails…
This is not meant to condemn Ppen's or anyone else's choices in any way.
But in the early days of this, there seemed to be mostly gossip in the emails. Soon thereafter, we learned that medical information and deeply personal stuff was being distributed, and I just decided I didn't need to read any of it. The scolds are right... This isn't our information.
I'm not a priss or anything, but I don't see how life in Western Civ or consumer behavior in Entertainment America has been improved by these exposures. Minor race jokes and gossip about movie star egos don't change anyone's opinion about anything in meaningful ways. And I'm not certain Sony's security was atypically lax.
Maybe it would be different if there'd been some kind of smoking gun... Something about sex trafficking or excused violence or something else.
But at this point, I think the actual evil, up to and through the release of the data, was entirely that of the intruders.
And I can't understand why law enforcement, or Anonymous-type 4Chan enthusiasts, haven't exposed who did this.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 20, 2014 6:44 PM
Charles: Iran is going to get a bomb. It's a matter of time.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 20, 2014 6:45 PM
"It's American lawyers."
Hired by...?
Radwaste at December 20, 2014 8:53 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/12/20/clooneys_right.html#comment-5679404">comment from Crid [CridComment at Gmail]This isn't our information.
Right on. Exactly right.
And I'm not a priss, either.
We have no right to anybody's private information.
Amy Alkon at December 20, 2014 10:56 PM
> Hired by...?
...People who want their legal interest s defended.
I guess I'm not sure what you're getting at.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 20, 2014 11:54 PM
There are no meaningful currents of conservative thought in an industry composed to stroke emotions, and disposed to do so abjectly.
Except Faux News, obviously. But, hey! War on Christmas, amirite?!?!?
DrCos at December 21, 2014 4:13 AM
Wfjag:
It's not like a "stupid comedy" such as South Park didn't cave into pulling an episode which included a Prophet Muhammad character,
Point of fact, that wasn't "South Park" that made the decision, it was Comedy Central, and Parker and Stone were very vocal about it.
They even managed to cram down past Comedy Central the card that "replaced the Mohammed scene" and called them out for the cowardice.
Unix-Jedi at December 21, 2014 8:19 AM
> amirite?!?!?
No.
Let's talk about this.
This story has nothing to do with with Fox at all. In fact, Fox has very little to do with politics or attitudes in America in any context.
But since you've brought it up, you allusion is misbegotten in any case: Conservatives aren't the ones prone to emotional twitching and endlessly stroked feelings. Not in Hollywood, or anywhere else. Conservatives hear opinions and ruminate; Liberals scramble on an ever-accelerating hamster wheel.
So Dr. Cos, when you're confronted by unpleasant truths, your first impulse is to worry that Fox is telling lies to the little people, the ones who aren't as elevated in their understanding as you are in yours. And you'd rather talk about that than share your precious insight.
Your fascination with Fox is therefore auto-erotic: The deep feelings it summons send you into a regression to teenage sarcasm, which is all you wanted anyway. You don't want to talk about how the studios are fucking this up, you want to lash out at Daddy.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 21, 2014 1:02 PM
If it turns out that caving in to criminals' demands is better for companies' bottom lines than resisting, then law enforcement (or the military?) should do something about it.
But it isn't clear yet whether companies that cave in will do better than those that resist. Let's let the experiment play itself out for a while and watch what happens.
jdgalt at December 21, 2014 2:01 PM
> Let's let the experiment play itself
> out for a while and watch what
> happens.
That's what they said about World War II!
…Or something.
I would really, really, rather not have to do that.
I think it would be much better if everyone involved went about their business in courage from a clear of understanding of what the threats in their lives were really like.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at December 21, 2014 4:48 PM
@Unix-Jedi:
The point you're trying to make is either unclear, or trite.
When South Park Episode 201 was broadcast, each time the name Muhammad was to be used, it was bleeped out, as was the speech at the end, and the face of cartoon Muhammad was blurred. Episode 201 has never been shown as a re-run. South Park's creators continue to accept their payments from Comedy Central, remain in contract with Comedy Central and have never again used a Muhammad Prophet character. SP's creators are bought and paid for, and like any person who has sold her or himself - whether on the street or the penthouse - they are only negotiating their price, and not their principles or virtue (since they've already sold the latter).
Wfjag at December 22, 2014 10:20 AM
"The man's a fricking movie star: That's the quintessence of robotic, emotion-grinding populism."
Clooney has just learned a hard lesson: Hollywood is not and has never been what he thought it was.
Cousin Dave at December 22, 2014 2:12 PM
Yeah, I'm late to this, but thought I'd add my two cents about South Park's "201" episode: Trey Parker and Matt Stone kept blaming Comedy Central for censoring the episode, and Comedy Central never denied it. However, not once did Parker and Stone come out and say, "This is the script. These are the words we wrote that were supposed to come out of the mouths of Kyle, Jesus and Santa Claus. This is what Comedy Central kept out." And the DVD version still has the bleeping. I honestly don't think they ever wrote anything.
Fayd at December 22, 2014 2:15 PM
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