don't miss it. for viewers in north america, that's 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. eastern time next sunday, december 28th. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. this is cnn breaking news. >> good morning. and welcome to "reliable sour s sources." we're standing by for any new developments on the assassination of these two new york city police officers. my heart is aching for my city this morning. and we will keep you fully informed on this throughout the day here on cnn. we also have breaking news about another major and fast-moving story, that is the sony pictures cyber attack. it is an attack the u.s. now believes was instigated by north korea. in an interview on cnn's "state of the union" this morning, president obama told candy crowley that it was an act of cyber vandalism, a very costly one at that. and he said the u.s. will respond proportionally. now, as we come to air this morning, there is a new

statement from the north korean regime. a regime that keeps dee ninyings behind the hacking but a regime that keeps threatening the united states and keeps condemning the movie "the interview." can you believe we are tuk being cyber attacks and threats because of a seth rogen movie? what was thought of as a silly, maybe lousy comedy just a few weeks ago has now become a symbol of two of america's greatest values, freedom of expression, and freedom from fear. i want to say that one again. free codom from fear. it affects every movie studio, every media company, every news organization in the digital age. in fact, president obama said that this morning and we're going to play that sound bite just ahead. so i have a group of guests standing by this morning covering this from every angle. we have mark cuban, larry king, allendan dershowitz and many mo. this new threat was published in english earlier this morning. it says the dprk has clear

evidence that the u.s. administration was deeply involved in the making of such dishonest reactionary movie. they're talking about "the interview." it goes on to say the army and people of the dprk is fully ready to stand in confrontation with the u.s. in all war spaces, including cyber warfare space to blow up those citadels. it was a long statement that was published. let's go to cnn's correspondent in seoul, south korea. thank you for being here. when you read this statement, what were the big takeaways to you? >> oh, i thought that the usual writer for the dprk has finally come back from vacation because we're seeing that bellicose, saber rattling, the typical rhetoric from north korea. they are upping the ante. it is just like the rhetoric we hear whenever north korea attacks, whenever they lash out, and they are at their very best here. a couple things to note, it did come out in english, you're right about that. it came out a couple hours ago, late here in korea.

the audience is absolutely not the domestic audience. it is for america. it came from the national defense commission. this is essentially the agency that as far as we know runs the military, the pentagon, if you will, speaking directly for kim jong-un. the other thing i really note about this is that they are trying to up the ante. north korea craves attention, and they are saying, okay, everyone is concerned about cyber attacks, so we're going to make it worse. >> so the when you read this, we were on air together yesterday, and you called one of the threats from north korea ridiculous. they were coming out yesterday talking about this film. what's different between what we heard yesterday and what we're now hearing this morning? >> it's even more ridiculous. they say that they're going to wage war against the white house, the pentagon, the u.s. mainland. it is typical north korea language, but at the same time

we have to remember this is a brutal regime. what they say you have to take with some sort of seriousness, and the fact that they have been so successful with sony pictures, you know, how much of this rhetoric can they actually achieve? so there is this crazy over the top language they throw out there, but there is some seriousness. we have to take that away from it. >> to your point, reading this long statement, it says "the interview" is undesirable and incites terrorism. it should not be allowed in any country in any region. as i read this, i thought it sounds a lot like what this anonymous group of hackers said on thursday. on thursday night they sent a threatening e-mail to the heads of the sony studio basically saying, you did the right thing by cutting the movie "the interview" out of theater and as long as you never release the movie, we'll stop attacking you. this sounds somewhat similar, does it not? >> the same ghostwriter.

it's like someone who continues to smoke and smells like cigarette smoke but pledges they kicked the habit. north korea simply is trying to say that they don't know who they are but, oh, we really love what they have done. yes, you're absolutely right. >> it occurs to me this is the kind of statement, the kind of rhetoric, that causes people like seth rogen to want to make a movie making fun of kim jong-un. i think it's important that north korea is claiming the administration was involved in the making of the movie. i wanted to play a sound bite from fareed zacari's interview with michael lynton where they talked about how all of this started because it was back in june when north korea actually first condemned the movie. it was six months before it was supposed to be released. >> michael, let me ask you to go through the sequence of what happened. when did you first realize that you had a problem? >> the first time we understood that there was an issue with the

north koreans was back in june of last summer when they came forward with various e-mails and statements and actually i think they were in touch with the white house itself and described their disfavor with the movie. at that point in time we actually reached out to experts at various -- at think tanks, within the state department, to try to get a proper understanding of whether or not there was a problem here and whether or not we were providing a security risk, and we were told that there wasn't a problem here, and so we continued to proceed. >> including the u.s. government told you there wasn't a problem. >> the u.s. government told us there wasn't a problem, that's correct. >> what is the significance of north korea claiming that the government, the u.s. government, is behind this movie? >> well, they really like the idea of everything playing into the u.s. government. that everything that every

american does, every negative piece of whatever points directly back to the north korea becau -- united states because that's how north korea works. of course they think it goes back to the head of the state. that to me is part of the ridiculousness of north korean thinking. what we have to take away from this is not that. i think the important thing for people to take away is that bottom part of the threat where they do say that they are going to escalate the cyber war, escalate the attacks. that's what i think the white house is going to walk away and wonder how serious is north korea about that, what is the next attack going to be. >> doesn't seem to me president obama is going to get much of a vacation in hawaii given this escalation we're hearing from north korea. thank you for being here for us. >> you bet. >> what we're hearing from south korea is the geopolitical story which is unfolding as we speak. there's another side of the story unfolding and that's the commercial side. it has been sony pictures' worst week ever.

already crippled by that cyber attack that happened at the end of the november, the movie studio had to cancel the christmas release of "the interview" on wednesday because theater owners said they wouldn't show the movie. so why did the theater owners say that? because of anonymous hackers' threats. that threat from tuesday you heard about even invoked 9/11 and warned americans to stay away from theaters. on cnn i called this capitulation and so did a lot of others and even the president said sony had made a mistake, but now sony is trying to find a new way to distribute the movie. an attorney retained by sony said this on "meet the press" just a few minutes ago. >> remember, sony only delayed this. sony has been fighting to get this picture distributed. it will be distributed. how it's going to be distributed i don't think anybody knows quite yet, but it's going to be distributed. >> i'll tell you a little background about how this story is happening. some e-mail servers at sony are

still having trouble. the best way to communicate is via their personal cell phones not their work phones and one source told me we are still pursuing all options. could be it independent theater owners maybe? i think we will find out in the days to come. i have a guest standing by in hollywood. he's very concerned that this movie might never be seen. he's gary michael walters, the ceo of bold films. it's a company behind movies like "drive," "whiplash" and "night crawler" in theaters right now. thanks for being here. >> great to be here. thanks for having me. >> tell me what the problem would be with this movie never getting into the public domain. >> i think that would be terrible. at bold films, we're dedicated to artistic freedom, but we simply make the films. at the end of the day we rely on our studio partners like sony, which is releasing "whiplash" in

theaters now, to release the films in theaters, on television, on dvd, on svod. >> and so if this movie never comes out, it's going to have a chilling effect on freedom of expression much more broadly. not just about this silly comedy. >> i think that it will have al terrible effect because when investors like us try to figure out how to make the movie and how to get our money back and how to make a profit, the domestic distribution has become a very crucial area that's difficult to secure. any impediment to that is going to make a hard job much harder, and so i think what is crucial is not that we talk just about "the interview" but sony not stand alone. the industry, law enforcement, the government needs to come

together and formulate a common policy because when america unites in a crisis, we're unstoppable. >> gary, you mentioned you are in business with sony. i want to ask you more about that right after this break. you have to fit in a quick break. stay with me. there's so much more to talk about, including the republican national committee's petition to theater owners. and later millionaire mark cuban is here telling me about how he found out his personal e-mails were leaked. he will tell me how he thinks behavior in hollywood will change because of all this. stay tuned. i'll be right back. i can't belin and rich creamy cheese before my sister's wedding well it's only 100 calories, so you'll be ready for that dress uh-huh... you don't love the dress? i love my sister... 40 flavors. 100 calories or less.

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welcome back. we are talking about the controversial comedy "the interview" and whether any companies are going to step up and help sony puck tours get it seen, get it distributed to the american people. netflix is not commenting this weekend. youtube is not getting back to me. they are two obvious possibilities. i want to bring in some other

voices. andrew wallinstein is back with us and in miami alan dershowitz who has called this the pearl har bon harbor on first amendment and gary michael williams. tell me about what you said earlier on cnn, pearl harbor on the first amendment. >> this is a frontal attack on our freedoms. it's a diversified attack. it's a high-tech attack through the hacking but it's also a low tech attack through the threats and it's not the first one. remember that theo van gogh was murdered for producing a film called "submission" and his co-producer was threatened with death and had to come to america. my feeling is unless this film is seen now more widely than it ever would have been seen before, which is the message that has to be sent to north korea, this is the beginning, and it's going to continue with iran. remember, iran may develop nuclear weapons soon.

they are much worse censors than north korea. they put the fatwa on salman rushdie and we beat that because all the publishers got together and collectively published his book. if the hollywood studio would say do what the publishers did and if we make sure that every time they try to censor, more people will see it, more people will read it, then it will backfire and that will send the most powerful message. >> allan, who do you blame to where we're at. last week we were talking about the titillating e-mails but so much has changed since then. sony has canceled the movie. now they're desperately seeking other partners to get it out. do you blame theater owners for being wary. do you blame american citizens for being fearful of threats that don't seem to be backed up by capabilities? >> i blame the media that is the hollywood studios and the television stations and movie theaters. they think they have a fiduciary

duty only to the shareholders. no. everyone who is covered by the first amendment, they have a fiduciary duty to the first amendment. they should have said, north korea, more people will see this film because of what you did than anything that would have happened had you not done this. they are not going to let you censor american films. that was the bottom line that should have been expressed and it took too long to say it and it was done too weakly and david is a great lawyer but he's been very vague about it. >> andrew, you cover this every day, you're covering it for "variety." why didn't sony do what alan is saying? >> i think you have to bring it back to the movie theaters. first amendment is one thing, legal liability is something entirely different. let's not forget in 2012 the tragic shooting in aurora, colorado, that left 12 dead. just a few months ago a federal judge indicated that the theater owners could be sued because

they should have foreseen such an incident could have occurred. if you think that was foreseeable, believe me, this could have also here with "the interview" been entirely foreseeable. that's what has the theaters running scared. >> i disagree completely with that. i think the first amendment trumps any kind of liability. any theater owner who says we have a first amendment obligation to show this film, the government has an obligation to protect us, would have been immune from liability. i don't think you can hide behind legal liability. the first amendment trumps the legal liability. >> so the first amendment would have been a proper defense? >> well, in this case absolutely because the government had an obligation to protect the theaters. in the other case it was not anticipated. it wasn't the nature of the movie or anything. it was somebody who walked into a theater and killed. they should have had maybe better protection. here we have a threat on the first amendment, and it can't be that you have liable if you exercise your first amendment right. remember, "the new york times,"

"the washington post," they were risking liability, too. they were risking criminal liability, financial liability, but they took it right to the government and they said, we're going to publish the pentagon papers. movie theaters are protected by the first amendment which means they have an obligation under the first amendment. they are the guardians of the first amendment in the first instance. >> let me ask you, gary -- >> i don't think you're right. i think the first amendment protects the artists -- >> i'm sorry to interrupt you andrew but i want to turn to gary because of something that happened two days ago. ga gary, you're back in business with sony. i partnered with them on friday for another film. how are you even able to communicate with the studio given the attack that crippled them, face-to-face, via fax? why did you decide to still work with them given all this uncertainty? >> i think it's like mark twain said, the rumors of sony's demise are greatly exaggerated. they're a great company. they do a lot of great work. i have got a movie in the

theaters with them now. we're glad to work with them again. we've got a project, a fantasy movie called "fire and ice." i don't think we're going to offend anyone unless you're an evil ice wiss azard, i think we safe there. but more seriously, the liability issue is a more specious one. the boston marathon was bombed and ran again. office buildings were bombed on 9/11 and i go into an office building every day. airlines were taken down. reasonable measures were taken to ensure the safety of the american people. i would never not focus on the safety of the public, but we can't cower every time some third generation die gnat tick dictator of a to thorring totalitarian regime makes an empty threat. the think the fact is it shows the strength of america. the fact that this government is so preoccupied with the efforts

of seth rogen and james franco who i hope don't end up rooming with salman rushdie, but we've got to stand tall. we're america. we're the most powerful, dynamic country in the history of the world, and our culture is our great asset, and it's used to change regimes and we need to stand tall. alan, i believe everybody has an obligation as americans to stand tall. the first amendment protects us from the government, but that doesn't mean that we are going to self-regulate the american soul into some fearful place. >> that's what we should also address, gary. when i was reading about your latest project with sony, here stt first comment i saw on deadline.com. the first comment on the sorry. it says, god, i hope they ask north korea for permission this time. it's that kind of thing that -- >> i will never ask north korea for permission for me or any of

my artists ever. >> i agree with that. >> we are a defender of artists' rights. that's our sole mission as financers of independent feature film. >> a year ago i wrote in my book "taking the stand" the greatest danger to the first amendment will come frin the future from self-censorship. i worry about self-censorship from islamic extremists. this is only a coming attraction from what we will get from iran. this dictator managed to get what no american president can do, censor a film because of its conte content. if you try to senscensor, we wi fight back. >> i'm coming up against a hard break in 15 seconds. andrew, a week from now, is this movie going to have a distribution deal in place? >> i'd be surprised to see it happen that imminently, but i think sony wants to strike while the iron is hot.

there's a lot of controversy generating publicity. they spent a lot of marketing money. i think they want to make it happen soon. >> i think we're all going to see this movie at some point. thank you for being here. i really appreciate it. coming up, the king of hollywood, i'm talking about larry king, and he will join me with his take on sony and on the media ethics here as well when we come back. just in time for the holidays. t-mobile introduces america's only unlimited 4g lte family plan.

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welcome back to "reliable sources." we're talking about the impact of the cyber attack at sony pictures. with every passing day the damage seems to get worse. we've seen more leaks of e-mails. new revelations about the studios and the stars. now we've seen the cancellation of "the interview." lets turn to a legend who knows hollywood more well than anyone else alive. that's larry king who joins me on the phone. morning, larry. >> morning, brian. happen to be with you. >> have you ever seen anything like this in your entire career? >> no, the closest i am come to it is from memory. i was 6 years old when charlie chaplin release "the great dictator" before we were at war with germany and the german zs go crazy. they threatened our ambassador, there were all sorts of threats made, but that did not back down. the movie was released. it was a great comedy maybe the

opposite of "the interview." it was a phenomenal comedy but nothing stopped it. of course, they didn't have the technology now. the germans could not interrupt our ability to send an e-mail. there were no e-mails. i think the trouble here, brian, is some part blame on the american press, why did so much media release all these stories of conversations between the president of sony and the sony officials and actors or agents? that was stolen property. why did the media release that? >> so it sounds like you're on the side of sony who said this shut not be reported on and the reporters who have this information should delete it? >> yes. first amendment, of course, we have a right to report it. now the question is should we report it. we don't show beheadings. we have the right to show a beheading. we don't do it out of taste or a feeling it would bother people.

so why do something that you know will only increase harm just to titillate the public to find out that this actor was being criticized by that agent? that was stolen property and i think that was a mistake. >> some people even suggested it was intentional on the part of the hackers to have folks go and talk all about these embarrassing leaks, be distracted by then and then basically come out and issue an ex portion demand and say do not show this film, you will be in danger if you show this film. what do you think of the theater owners' decision and sony's decision to cancel it? >> well, they had a problem. i try -- what i have done all my career is try to step into the other person's shoes. if you were a theater owner, brian, and that threat existed, what would you do? >> well, you know, i guess i have two hats about this, larry. maybe you do, too. a big part of me wants to say, you know, you stand your ground and the last thing you do is pull your movie. we have to be able to have acceptable risk.

every day we get in a car, we're taking a risk that we're going to get hurt in a car accident, but we do it because we know -- we have the good sense of what the risk is. then the other part of me understands what we've heard earlier in the show. there are legal issues and security issues. so i guess i see it both ways. >> now, when 9/11 happened and the rest, we didn't cancel airline flights. we took protections. you're searched now when you go to the airport. you can't get in if you have even possibility dangerous materials. that is reacting, react to fear, but logical reaction to fear. maybe there is a way theater owners could have done something. i don't know what the answer is and as you pointed out, it's a two-edged sword. i agree with those who say this is only going to get worse. if this is in the hands of north korea, imagine it in the hands of people with more technology than north korea might have. i think this is a cause of grave

concern. >> larry, i appreciate you being here this morning. thanks for calling in. >> anytime. >> it was really only a matter of time before all of this we're talking about became political. cnn obtained last night a letter by the republican national committee. it was to the ceos of ten major theater chains all urging them to put the movie back on their screens. let me read you part of that letter. it was signed by the rnc chairman reince priebus. he wrote this, as a sign of my commitment, if you agree to show this movie, i will send a note to the republican party's millions of donors and supporters urging them to buy a ticket. not to support one movie or hollywood, but to show north korea we cannot be bullied into giving up our freedom. of course, hollywood has always been identified as a democratic town, so this was a rather interesting letter to see. is this about tapping into a new donor stream, a swipe at president obama, or something else altogether? let's bring in sean spicer, who is the rnc's spokesman. good morning. thanks for being here. >> you bet, brian.

thank you. >> is this just a pr stunt? tell me about what instigated this. >> well, i think this -- as you alluded to, hollywood and the republican party have had a love-hate relationship for years. this is not about hollywood, not about the entertainment industry and frankly not about this movie. what this comes down to is the very fiber of america. if we can be bullied into not releasing a movie, you have to ask what's next? is it an energy company? is it a mom and pop small store that gets told don't show this? is it someone who gets told you can't post a video to youtube? i think we as americans have a duty to stand up and show what we're all about when it comes to instances like this. our view at the rnc was this was an opportunity. somebody wanted to take away our freedom and so what we want to do is turn it into an opportunity to reward those who give our free donl. what we said to the studio and theater execs is show the movie and guarantee that a share of the profits go to military organizations like the uso and the yellow ribbon fund to help

show the rest of the world that that's correct knows how to stand and 2350i9. >> have you heard from any of the ten theer owner ceos yet? >> we have not. it's obviously over the weekend but you have seen people like mark kirk from illinois call for hearings, senator john mccain had a piece in cnn this morning. i think that the momentum continues to move in the right direction. with other people, not just hollywood, business types, other republican politicians getting on board and realizing this is bigger than one movie and one industry. >> you said in the letter that president obama has been sending mixed messages about this movie. what did you mean by that? >> well, i think alan dershowitz referred to it earlier in terms of there wasn't a clear sign from the administration early on and what the chairman was alluding to was when he was asked about this incidence on abc news the day before -- or on thursday, he was a little murky about it. then on friday after public opinion started to sway, it started to come out that sony should release the movie, he said that sony hadn't called.

as cnn has widely reported, the sony executives had been this talks with the white house. i think the administration wasn't as forthcoming and as strong as they could have and that's what the chairman was alluding to in the letter. >> my reporting indicates that valerie jarrett was the main contact for sony when these conversations were going on but it did not get directly to the president and the president says if it had gotten directly to him, well, maybe he could have tugged on the ear of the theater owners and weighed in on this matter. that would have been -- >> brian, you can't blame sony or anyone else. it's not like the president has a direct line to them. we rely on the president's staff to do their job and if the president's most trusted adviser, of which valerie jarrett is one of them, don't inform him of big incidents like this, you can't blame anyone else but the white house and the white house staff for it. >> let me play a sound bite from the president's interview this morning here on cnn on candy crowley's "state of the union." he was talking about how this is not just about, as you said, not just about one movie.

let's take a look. actually i think we don't have it. he said it's not just about sony or movies. it's also about the news industry. he talked about cnn having critical coverage of north korea in the past and he suggested that all media companies, all news organizations, have to be concerned about this precedent that might be set here. that an anonymous threat from hackers could actually change behavior. it seems to me, sean, this might be a rare moment of agreement between the left and the right, between the democrats and the republicans. >> well, i would hope so. and i would take it a step further. i don't think it's just about media organizations. when you look at the entertainment industry as a whole, it's a major export in the united states that accounts for countless jobs. what happens when a manufacturer builds something another country objects to or a small business posts something and they get threatened if they don't take it down? this is not just about the movie industry and it's not about

hollywood. this is about who we are as america and the ability for us to be able to speak freely and express our thoughts and do things that may be controversial but may be -- but are part of the fabric of who we are and what we stand for. so i would take this well beyond the media industry. >> forgive me for being a little cynical here, but is this also for the rnc a chance to sign up new donors perhaps? >> well, if you look going back 10, 20 years, i don't think you will find many people with a hollywood zip code donating to us. again, i think if this was a ploy, there's a lot easier way to do -- we've been very successful at fund-raising under chairman priebus. i don't think we need stunts like this to do it. frankly, hollywood wouldn't be the place we would go to look for them. it comes down to actually sometimes you see people in washington doing the right thing and standing for the right thing. >> if you don't hear from the theater owners in the next few days, what then? is there a future plan to push it harder? >> i think what the theater owners need to know, you saw

like mark kaisirk call for hearings, senator mccain and others, this is continuing to grow. it's not just producers and industry executives talking about this. you're seeing the american people, what we want is a ground swell of support. it's not about "the interview" but we will stand with the theater owners if they show this because we want to show america is bigger than this issue -- >> i have an idea for you, sean. how about a screening at ther nc headquarters? >> we would love it. >> thank you for being here. no comment for sony on the letter from the rnc but we'll stay with that, check in with sony and the theater owners. coming up, a slight turn here. another important angle on the story. i want you to hear what it's like to be on the receive end. to have your private messages exposed to the world. it happened to this guy, billionaire mark cuban star of "shark tank." his demands for more money from sony are now fodder for bloggers.

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also in that boat right alongside george clooney and alex predeck is one of america's most successful and outspoken businessmen, billionaire mark cuban. owns the dallas mavericks, stars on the hit show "shark tank ", he's an investor in many businesses. it turns out cuban was hot very happy with sony's salary offer for the next few seasons. this is what we know cuban said to sony. seriously? no chance. this is beyond an insult. then he went a little further. he said you may want to start cutting me out of the promos. cuban hasn't really talked about the hacking or those negotiations with sony. so when he was in new york i got ahold of him and asked about that as well as the future of private communications more generally and the possibility of disappearing text messaging apps. in true mark kau ban style, he

had a lot to say. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> tell me about when you realize you were along all of these hacked e-mails on sony pictures. >> i read it online somewhere. i forget where i saw it but i was curious about the sony hack and then i was like, wait, that's me. then i got an e-mail from somebody who said they had gone through all the hacked things that had been released and they saw e-mails and other information there. i was like, okay, cool, you know, and then i just read more as everybody else did. >> were you embarrassed? >> no, no. i didn't care. it's nothing i wouldn't have said publicly. if they want me to be there to continue to do good television and make investments that i like to do but would not have otherwise done, then it's a decision they have to make and if, you know, we don't come to a resolution, i will leave the show. >> to me it was one of hundreds of examples in recent weeks of seeing how hollywood really works behind the scenes, and seeing there's a lot of personal disputes. >> yeah. i wouldn't take it so much that

it's how hollywood works. i would take it to here is the type of personal dynamics between people in hollywood and how e-mail has become the new face-to-face or had become the new face-to-face. you know, whereas before you might go to the beverly hills hotel and have lunch and hash everything out. now everyone is so busy, whatever you might have said over lunch they're popping in a e-mail and talking trash. >> i know you were talking in past tense. do you think it will profoundly change in hollywood. >> not until the next one. and there will be a next one. >> it takes one more. >> everybody thinks that's not going to happen. that's just the way people think. now that the hack has gotten so much notoriety and it's had such an impact, you know, that's a chip for any hacker. that's a trophy hack, and penal -- hackers are going to want more trophy hacks just to

put the trophy on their mantel. >> it seems like the attack might have been a good thing for you. you say you're in touch with sony about an app. >> mark burnett's people do most of the gogs, and so -- but we also have to incorporate sony into it. what went from cc'ing steve and holly jacobs and the sony crew has turned into i'm only doing it on -- i started this before the hack, before there was any awareness of the hack. it was something that i had already pushed them to do in the first place knowing that, look, when you hit send on a tweet, a facebook post, a text, or an e-mail, the minute you hit send, you lose ownership of it. whoever you send it to now control that is message. they can do whatever they want. they can put it anywhere they want and you have no idea. but you don't lose responsibility for that. >> how do you feel as someone that works with sony to see them crippled by this attack? >> i feel bad for the people. for me i feel horrible for the people. you know, the way the media is

kind of -- you talk about me spinning it to my advantage, right? i mean, the media -- here we are talking about it. it's turned into a big story, and there's a lot of collateral damage. all of the people whose personal information who just happened to work at sony. they went to work for a big company, maybe they wanted the security. they're not running a studio -- >> not the millionaires. >> it's just people who are going to work. now they have to worry about identity theft. now they have to worry about the threats, the risk. there are so many nuanced problems that have been created by all this blowing up in the media that steve mosko and amy pascal, they're big people. they can deal with these things. they took a job that put them in the public eye. >> they signed up for not the hacking but for public spotlight. >> it comes with it. my e-mail being there, stuff happens, right? but on the flip side, you know, sammy or susie or joey or whoever that works at sony and may be a receptionist, may be a delivery person, may be somebody

who just happened to get an e-mail from one of these people whose e-mails have been made public, all their information is now searchable for the most part if you know where to look. >> question becomes should sony have green lit and made this movie that involved this plot line involving kim jong-un. >> yeah. yeah! absolutely. you can't be afraid like that, but, you know, we learn over time, right? i don't think there's ever been a movie made in the history of movie making where somebody side we might get hacked by a sovereign government. >> this is a new one. >> this is a new one, right? so you learn. and had it not happened to them, it would have been something else. you know, it would have been china or it would have been if not north korea, russia. whatever it may be, right? there's always tension somewhere where people want to downplay or -- >> but you're on the side of free expression here. >> you have to be, right? you have to be, but now you just increase the moat you try to

build around it to protect yourself. there's always risk involved with filmmaking and there's good and bad to it. but, yeah, you can't -- we'll learn going forward. >> mark, thanks for being here. >> thanks. anytime. >> we will share more of that interview on cnnmoney.com. when we come back, my personal point of view on america's response to the sony cyber attack and this, how can you narrow nine years of sheer pompous genius into a top five list? well, i'm going to try to do that. my top five colbert moments as we bid a fond farewell to "the colbert report" next.

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i still can't quite believe it, but it is true, stephen colbert has signed off from the stephen colbert report. what a sign-off as 2.5 million people tuned in. the highest ever. and he didn't just mock the news, but he was a mock anchor and and allowed his show to be a nine-year era ra critique. and now he is going to be replacing david letterman next fall. but for now, let's look back at the kascharacter colbert and th host that he is. >> reporter: he has been the host of the colbert report since 2005 and interviewed tony bennett to lady gaga to president obama, so coming up with the top five moments is no

easy task, but we are giving it a shot starting with truthiness and he coined the show in 2005. >> anybody can read the news to you, but i promise to feel the news at a you. >> reporter: in 2005, the dialect society named it the word of the year, truththiness. and another mainstay the segment of celeb-studded send-off. i. >> i have drank beer with dan mathai, and i have funneled beer with polis and i have dropped acid with maurice hinchey. >> reporter: and who can forget

one of the most risque presidential roasts ever. >> this man not only stands for things, but stands on things, like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares, and that is going to send a strong message no matter what happens to america, she is going to be giving the most profoundly staged photo-ops e r ever. >> reporter: he tried his hand as a farm worker. >> i don't want a tomato picked by a mexican, but by an american and not sliced by a guatemalan or where a chilean gives me a brazilian. >> reporter: and our favorite moment where there was a cancellation and he filled it to daft punk to jeff bridges and

even henry kissinger, and maybe we will see some of the guests next year. from the tv anchor to one of the greatest real anchors and while we have been on the news this hour, we have learned wonderful news about nbc's tom brokaw and i will share it with you in a moment.

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i have never been on the internet and i am doing pretty well. does he even work here? don't listen to the naysayer. take the comcast business speed test. get faster speeds or more savings, or we'll give you $150. comcast business. built for business. welcome back. we have been covering the sony cyber attack h this morning and before we sign off, i have to say this, i understand why the theater owners and sony pulled the movie "the interview" and i understand there were threats, i get this, but we have to get

real about processing the risks. and these can give hackers and others needless victories. i want to play what philip mudd said friday. >> we sit on risks everyday in the counter terrorism world, and if we responded to every "if if if" nothing would have happened in america, and we would have stayed home everyday and so this is a risk i would have taken. >> i could not have said it better. and this is news about tom brokaw. you remember a year ago he was diagnosed with cancer and multiple myeloma and very serious and concerning to so many of us in the media business and this is a letter we just received, and it is from tom brokaw who says that this is cancer many remission and i will go on a drug regimen to keep it there.

and wonderful news from nbc to us in the last half hour. and i will see you on cnn.com and keep the conversation continuing. and it is my honor to the say on this final "state of the union" with candy crowley, it is the final "state of the union" with candy crowley, and it starts candy crowley, and it starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com lake duck? >> lame duck? >> tell that to president obama who's sounding and