CNN: White House Believes Sony Has Kowtowed to the North Korean Dictator

JOHNS: “One of the big questions in all of this is a proportional response to what has happened, and that’s a little bit difficult for the administration to try to figure out, because there is no equivalent entity in North Korea like Sony Pictures. So how does the administration fashion a proportional response? I think that’s just one question.

I do also think we need to sort of restate what we just heard a minute ago, that there’s also that issue of Sony Pictures and whether or not it should be blamed, the question of the movie theaters shutting down and, you know, pushing Sony Pictures to go ahead and do what it did.

Just the same, they’re saying here at the White House that there is that political problem, because rather than projecting a position of strength and standing up for free expression, instead the movie industry of the United States is now in position of appearing to sort of kowtow to a dictator. So that, too, is a difficult situation and one certainly the president can get asked about in his news conference today.”