Obama Denies Telling Sony To Cave

by JASmius



Suuuuuuure he did:

Barack Obama sat for an interview Friday with CNN and rebutted any notion that Sony Pictures consulted with the White House on pulling "The Interview" from theaters after the news channel aired excerpts of a separate interview in which the studio's chairman, Michael Lynton, described reaching out to the administration.

In addition, a source close to the administration took issue with any suggestion that it advised Sony on the film's release.

CNN anchor Candy Crowley nabbed the interview with Obama....

Her "gold watch".

....which will be shown in full Sunday for the final installment of her series "State of the Union." Appearing on the network Friday to promote the interview, she recounted that Obama told her no one in the White House talked with Sony about yanking the film.

"They called about the hacking," Crowley, who announced she was leaving the network earlier this month, said on air Obama told her. "There was not discussions about distributing or not distributing."

Enough, already.  Does anybody seriously believe this?  Or is this a case of O relaying the cave order through one of his underlings?  Or Sony instinctively knowing what The One wanted and carrying it out?  Because it has to be one of these three possibilities, the latter two providing him with semi-plausible deniability.

Regardless, the other shoe will fall on this one.  Count on it.

What clinches my ocean skepticism about O's "stand fast!" claim?

This:

A senior administration official who spoke to Variety on condition of anonymity, said, "There was a meeting, and they did present to the government their issue. But to say that we instructed them, or made them to believe that we endorsed the idea of them pulling the film is categorically incorrect. The administration, and no Administration, is in the habit of instructing businesses what to do or not do or how to conduct their business." [emphasis added]

I call this "the audacity of nope".  Feel free to add your name entries in the comments, until POTUS has the NoKos hack them.