Attackers win a round over Sony's 'Interview'

[Commentary] If an anonymous group threatened in mid-December to harm bakeries without saying where, when or how, would every doughnut shop and cake vendor feel compelled to shut down through the holiday season? Of course not. Yet a threat by an anonymous group of hackers led the country's major theater chains to close their doors to “The Interview,” Sony Pictures' edgy comedy about a planned assassination of North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

The hackers are engaged in terrorism, pure and simple, in an effort to stop people from seeing the movie. But even though the terrorists won this round, Sony still can — and should — make the movie widely available through other means. Judging from the early reviews, “The Interview” probably isn't worth the fuss. But the hackers picked this fight, threatening not just a single Hollywood studio but the millions of Americans likely to go to a movie during the holidays. And no matter what you think of the people behind “The Interview,” they represent any artist whose work may offend someone in power. That's the sort of speech we can't afford to have squelched.