we are back with my exclusive interview with the ceo of sony pictures michael lynton about the north korean hack attack against his company and the threat of terrorism. 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
do you worry what this has done to sony s brand? you re one of the great electronics companies in the world. no, i recognize that. i think we can recover as a brand or, you know, we have to assess what it means to the brand. i certainly think that we can recover from this, yes. i think we have, you know, strong relations within the creative community. i think many of them understand now what it is that happened and are sympathetic to what it is we ve had to go through through this process. somebody asked the president at his news conference, would he watch the movie? are you going to send it to him? if the president wants to see the movie, i would be more than delighted to send it to him. it would be my pleasure. michael lynton, pleasure to have you on. thank you very much. when we come back, the rest of all the news this week. i have got a great panel to talk about it. cuba coming in from the cold. russia s ruble collapses, and
i m sympathetic that sony as a private company was worried about liabilities and this and that and the other. i wish they d spoke on the me first. i would have told them, do not get into a pattern in which you re intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks. but sony chief executive michael lynton insists that sony was in contact with senior white house advisers about the problem. the state department agrees that sony was in discussion with them. now, as someone who follows the president i can tell you he is often not a man of his word. so who to believe? a company on the front page of virtually every newspaper struggling to deal with hacking by a former foreign regime, or the president of the united states, who makes believe he wishes he was contacted?
note that the way to scare countries into submission is to threaten these kinds of attacks. at that point the story will be about much more than a hollywood comedy. for more go to cnn.com/fareed and read my washington post cl column this week, and let s get started. so let us get straight to sony s side of the story. joining me now is michael lynton, the ceo of sony entertainment as well as the chairman and ceo of sony pictures entertainment. in other words, he is the boss at the company behind the interview the movie that provoked the cyber attack and threat. the president says sony made a mistake in pulling the film. did you make a mistake? no. i think actually the unfortunate
throughout. when we come back, i will ask sony s michael lynton when he knew exactly he had a problem. in this accident. because there was no accident. volvo s most advanced accident avoidance systems ever. the future of safety, from the company that has always brought you the future of safety. give the gift of volvo this season and we ll give you your first month s payment on us. shyou see this right? it s 80% confidence and 64% knee brace. that s more. shh. i know that s more than 100%. but that s what winners give. now bicycle kick your old 401(k) into an ira. i know, i know. listen, just get td ameritrade s rollover consultants on the horn. they ll guide you through the whole process. it s simple. even she could do it.