Sony, behaving like sniveling cowards, succumbed to threats by North Korea and refused to release their movie 'The Interview.' Consumers should give Sony something far more important to fear than the airing of their dirty laundry by a third world dictator. Consumers should boycott all Sony products until they release 'The Interview."
Let me make this clear: I am not a fan of Seth Rogen's style of comedy. This film was not on my "must see" list. However, my unwavering passion for the rights of free speech and free expression requires me to take a stand even for a movie I might ordinarily find distasteful. Let's make clear: Sony has every right to not make films it finds distasteful. It has its own free speech right to not associate with any message it disagrees with.
But let's also make clear that Sony's decision here is not a manner of Sony disagreeing with the content of the movie. Sony reviewed the treatment for the film. It sought out professional opinion from the Rand Corporation. It approved the project, arranged for distribution, and marketed the film. Sony, we can conclude, did not pull the film as a matter of conscience. But then, we already knew that.
Sony only pulled the film in response to a cyber attack on its network that emanated from North Korea and the threats that followed. In other words, Sony made the decision to pull the film out of fear. This is reminscent of the 'Satanic Verses' episode in the 1980s. To refresh your memory, in 1989 Viking-Penguin published Salman Rushdie's novel called the 'Satanic Verses.' The book got its title from three verses that purportedly were uttered by Satan to the Prophet Mohammed, and are used as part of an underlying subplot to the work. Muslims deny the authenticity of these verses, and consider them fraudulent.
The book provoked outrage and violence from Muslims around the world. Eventually, in Iran, the Ayatollah issued a "fatwa" calling for Muslims to murder Rushdie and the editors and publishers involved with the book. In the UK, some bookstores were burned. Eventually Viking-Penguin announced that they would release the book in the US. But several major bookstore chains refused to sell the book in the US. Writers began holding protests against what appeared to be Iran dictated censorship in the United States. Massive protests outside the bookstores eventually lead to a reversal by the bookstores, and the core American values of Free Speech and Free Expression won the day.
Rachel Maddow went into deeper detail here:
There are some who shrugged at Sony's decision to pull this movie. Indeed, the culture police aren't too fond of Seth Rogen's brand of irreverent comedy, and would rather if such films weren't made in the first place. For example, John Harwood tweeted 'Good riddance" in response to Sony's decision to pull the film. It is a rare day for me to cast my lot with conservatives, but the conservative criticism of Harwood's tweet is spot on (although, conservative culture police have also criticized Rogen's projects before).
It is here that I should remind liberals that the root of 'liberal' is 'liberty.' If we go back just a couple of decades ago -- say about the time of the 'Satanic Verses' controversy, liberals were associated with the ACLU and its unequivocal defense of civil liberties. Support for free speech and free expression were paramount liberal values. Historically, it was the left that was most subjected to censorship and efforts to limit our freedom of speech and expression (see: McCarthyism). This is one of the reasons liberals fought the Ayatollah's attempts to censor America's reading habits from abroad. It is also why ACLU lawyer Joseph Burton, himself Jewish, defended the First Amendment rights of Neo-Nazis. Not because he agreed with their message -- he clearly did not -- but because the rights of free speech and free expression are core values that should be fiercely defended even when you disagree with the content of the expression.
Some note that there is no First Amendment issue here, and claim there is no wrong here. They are right on the first part. This is not a legal issue. The United States government has not taken actions to supress the film or punish those involved with production of it. But there is a wrong here. A film, whatever its artistic merits, is being suppressed by threats and intimidation from a third world tyrant. And that should trouble all Americans. It is not merely a threat to American values of free speech and free expression; at this point, it is also a threat to American sovereignty.
So, what can we do about it? We should do as those free speech advocates did in the 1980s. We should, in no uncertain terms let Sony and the theaters that refused to show the movie know that we will not pander to their businesses, or buy their products until they stand up to a brutal dictator, and allow the American public decide for itself if the movie is worthy of its attention.
#BoycottSony should be used in your tweets and Facebook Status Updates to support the release of 'The Interview' and to show your disapproval of Sony for not releasing the film, and the theaters for refusing to show the film in the first place. But you can't just tweet and post status updates about #BoycottSony; you have to follow through and boycott them. Don't buy Sony products or see any other Sony film, and don't give your business to any of the major theater chains that refused to show the movie in the first place. The list of theater chains to avoid follows:
AMC
Cinemark
Cineplex
Regal
Southern Theatres
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