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Boogeyman wins as movie theaters cave to threat

"The Interview" dropped from Christmas lineup after mysterious threats online

In the end, the boogeyman won.

A mysterious, unknown entity from the nether regions of the Internet posted an ominous message threatening the lives of all who might see Sony Pictures' Christmas Day comedy "The Interview."

It called itself "Guardians of Peace."

"You will obey," they wrote.

And we did.

Big theater chains such as Regal, Cinemark, Cineplex and AMC Theatres, along with regional chains such as Classic Cinemas, announced they would not show "The Interview." Exactly what the Guardians wanted.

Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton told employees this week that despite his company's widespread data breach, "This won't take us down."

It did.

Wednesday afternoon, Sony capitulated to the fear, canceling the release of "The Interview."

The alarming events of the past 48 hours will go down in history as a pivotal moment in how we as a nation deal with cyberthreats made against our citizens, our culture and our way of life.

At first, these were unfounded threats from a cyberspace boogeyman.

Recent reports suggest that North Korea's government is the real Guardians of Peace, the entity that now possesses the power to determine what movies Hollywood studios will release or not.

Worse, if North Korea really is behind Guardians of Peace, it will have masterfully suckered America's news media into aiding and abetting Guardians of Peace's goals to undermine our sense of security by fencing stolen goods from Sony's hacked computers, then calling it fair game.

Sony officials Wednesday released a strange statement: "We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression."

Then promptly, the studio deserted its filmmakers and killed free expression, because burying a controversial movie is pretty much the same as never allowing it to be made.

Perhaps it's time for us to revisit George Clooney's fact-based drama "Good Night and Good Luck," about CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow standing up against the boogeyman of McCarthyism during the 1950s.

"We proclaim ourselves as indeed we are, as defenders of freedom wherever it exists in the world," David Strathairn as Murrow says. "But we cannot defend freedom abroad if we desert it at home."

This week, we did just that.

America's movie studios and theaters must decide if they want to be strong or safe, because they cannot be both. They can indeed be strong, by protecting our time-honored freedoms of choice and speech from foreign influences.

Yet, they can never be safe. Not completely. The movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado, reminds us of that reality.

In the near future, we will look back on this moment with the benefit and hindsight that will see two truths:

1. Decisions made in fear do not possess the highest quality of reflection.

2. Decisions made in fear often later imbue regret in those who make them.

Murrow's words to his CBS peers just before standing up against the nation's earlier boogeyman ring with searing pertinence now:

"The terror is right here in this room."

And this room is our home, the United States of America.

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