How Sony Screwed Us All

So Sony decides to to green light a crazy little film about the big idea of assassinating the child/man spoiled brat dictator of an unpredictable and often wild-eyed hell hole of a country that happens to have a stockpile of nuclear weapons. Enough to blow the entire world to smithereens.

Okay, I know all about free speech and artistic independence but even the airheads in Hollywood should know enough to anticipate the kind of blow back from a tyrannical regime that would make a bad review in Variety look like a walk in the park. Yes, they did check out the idea (reportedly after the film was produced) with the White House but what can the suits surrounding the president do to check out the likely reception by Kim Jong-un? Is there even a sane leader on the planet who would welcome a film that culminates in his head turning into an exploding hand grenade?

So Sony marches on and sets the release of the film for Christmas day (Oh Joy) and figures "Hey, we're movie stars. We live in our own little universe. Who cares what a bunch of North Koreans think. No one can touch us...and if they as much as try, Creative Artists Agency will send in the 101st Airborne to our rescue."

Well, fantasies should be left to Jeff Katzenberg and his animated features. In what appears to be a surprise to no one but Sony, there are hacks and leaks and threats of severe violence -- and faced with something much more intimidating than poor box office stats, Sony kills the flick, runs for the hills and cries to the world about the terrible fate it has suffered.

And a bad turn of events it is. But it is far more than that. And it impacts all of us who never make movies, don't earn Hollywood fortunes and aren't in position to authorize dangerous ideas unless we are ready to back them up to the hilt. All of the citizens of the U.S. and much of the free world suffered as a direct result of Sony's stupid and gutless behavior. The stars received their salaries, the studio will likely be reimbursed by insurance but a nation's freedoms have been diminished.

Not because we cannot see "The Interview" in movie theaters but because the threat of intimidation, retaliation and violence will now spread -- even go viral -- in the face of the fact that a brutal force intent on suppression of free speech has been victorious. It has prevailed. It has frightened a major corporation to destroy its product in the hopes that it has paid a form of ransom for the ability to go forward without being bullied by the bad guys.

Why are we all screwed by this ugly turn of events:

*The entertainment industry -- films, books, video games, TV, websites -- are now officially hostages to all who seek to terrorize them.

*This will lead to creative and editorial decisions being made across the board that have nothing to do with art, insight, education or even laughter -- but instead to the safety of the decision makers. (What if I wanted to publish a book, "North Korea Sucks." Who would publish it?)

*This means that what you see, read, watch, absorb, learn from -- will all have to pass through a new set of myopic and restrictive lenses.

*And on a larger stage, our nation's ability to proudly defend what its citizens produce -- whether it is genius or garbage -- has been seriously questioned. In a sense, a Korean missile landed in Hollywood and we refused to return fire. At the very moment we were hit. With full and disproportionate force. The kind of force that keeps a free people free.

Sony owes us more than a movie. They owe an apology.

And then they need to go out and buy a spine.