Oscar winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who critiqued the media in HBO’s The Newsroom, slammed the media for publishing the Sony Pictures emails that hackers released. Meanwhile, a lawyer for the studio has asked that the media stop running stories on the emails.
Sorkin wrote an op-ed for the New York Times, criticizing the media for publishing the stolen documents. He notes that the emails would not have been publicized had the media not published them. They were playing right in the hackers’ hands.
While Sorkin admitted that he is a party involved in the hack, since emails showing how Sony mishandled his Steve Jobs movie, he said he doesn’t care about the insults themselves. The issue is that the insults were revealed at all.
He also suggested that these emails aren’t something that the public needs to see, like the Pentagon Papers were.
“Do the emails contain any information about Sony breaking the law? No. Misleading the public? No,” Sorkin wrote. “Acting in direct harm to customers, the way the tobacco companies or Enron did? No. Is there even one sentence in one private email that was stolen that even hints at wrongdoing of any kind? Anything that can help, inform or protect anyone?”
Later, Sorkin writes, “If you close your eyes you can imagine the hackers sitting in a room, combing through the documents to find the ones that will draw the most blood. And in a room next door are American journalists doing the same thing. As demented and criminal as it is, at least the hackers are doing it for a cause. The press is doing it for a nickel.”
Meanwhile, in a letter published by the Times, David Boies, a well-known attorney hired by Sony, asked the media to stop publishing the “stolen information.”
Sony “does not consent to your possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading or making any use,” Boies wrote in the letter, which was sent on Sunday.
A group called The Guardians of Peace is believed to be responsible for the hacking in reaction to Sony’s The Interview. The film has Seth Rogen and James Franco assigned to assassinate North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the hackers have threatened to drop more emails on Christmas Day as a “gift” that will “put Sony Pictures into the worst state.” The Interview comes out on Christmas Day.
image courtesy of Peter West/ACE/INFphoto.com