CNN anchor John Berman, photo provided by CNN
A not-very-visual story came to life on TV Thursday, when the Sony hacking scandal became breaking news. The response, particularly by CNN, was smart and deep, trusting viewers’ understanding of malware, cyber-spying and the forensics behind a digital attack. A rather cerebral story made for astounding breaking television news.
In addition to ridiculing the Sony capitulation, experts on CNN explained the new kind of army, the new kind of warfare, new kind of cyber- attacks by nation states that is before us.
The North Korean attack on Sony — ultimately successful in forcing the studio to quash a movie that the North Koreans found politically offensive — was politically motivated. “That’s why people are calling this cyber-terrorism,” CNN anchor John Berman said.
On MSNBC, Lawrence O’Donnell went deep into the First Amendment questions raised by Sony’s response to events.
Bill O’Reilly on Fox News Channel told correspondent Ed Henry the situation requires a response to North Korea: “You gotta punish ’em some way or this is going to become epidemic.”
Overall it was an impressive performance by a medium generally unwelcoming to stories about computer technology or, for that matter, stories without pictures of chaos and carnage.
