Top Items:
New York Times:
U.S. Said to Find North Korea Ordered Cyberattack on Sony — WASHINGTON — American officials have concluded that North Korea ordered the attacks on Sony Pictures's computers, a determination reached as the studio decided Wednesday to cancel the release of a movie comedy about the assassination …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Los Angeles Times, NBC News, Motherboard, ThinkProgress, The Huffington Post, CNNMoney.com, BuzzFeed, Gawker, The Hill, Nerdist, The Daily Banter, Slantpoint, Mashable, Inside Movies, The Verge, EW.com, Hit & Run, Hollywood Reporter, Addicting Info, Hullabaloo, Boing Boing, JustOneMinute and Fusion
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Kim Zetter / Wired:
The Evidence That North Korea Hacked Sony Is Flimsy — A poster for the movie “The Interview” is taken down by a worker after being pulled from a display case at a Carmike Cinemas movie theater, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, in Atlanta. Georgia-based Carmike Cinemas has decided to cancel …
Discussion:
CNNMoney.com, Mediaite, ABC News, Vox, Outside the Beltway and Raw Story
Gregg Kilday / Hollywood Reporter:
Top Five Theater Circuits Drop ‘The Interview’ After Sony Hack — The country's largest chains won't be showing the movie — The country's top five theater circuits have decided not to play Sony's The Interview, a knowledgeable source tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Discussion:
New York Times, Gawker, The Huffington Post, Associated Press, WMAZ-TV, Hot Air, BBC, Boing Boing, Variety, National Review, Talking Points Memo, The Moderate Voice, The Dish, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, The Hill, NPR, Guardian, TIME, The Daily Caller, Inside Movies, Hit & Run, AOL Article, Truth Revolt, Jezebel, Mediaite and Deadline, more at Mediagazer »
Reuters:
Sony cancels North Korea movie in apparent win for Pyongyang hackers — (Reuters) - Sony Pictures has canceled the release of a comedy on the fictional assassination of North Korea's leader, in what appears to be an unprecedented victory for Pyongyang and its abilities to wage cyber-warfare.
Discussion:
TalkLeft and The Great Debate
Mike Fleming / Deadline:
North Korea-Based Thriller With Gore Verbinski And Steve Carell Canceled — EXCLUSIVE: The chilling effect of the Sony Pictures hack and terrorist threats against The Interview are reverberating. New Regency has scrapped another project that was to be set in North Korea.
Discussion:
The Federalist, Commentary Magazine, The Wrap, Taylor Marsh, Gawker, Mashable, Inside Movies, Ed Driscoll, EW.com, Slantpoint, National Review, Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Mediaite, Re/code and The Verge
Brent Lang / Variety:
Sony Cancels Theatrical Release for ‘The Interview’ on Christmas — With theater chains defecting en masse, Sony Pictures Entertainment has pulled the planned Christmas Day release of “The Interview.” — In announcing the decision to cancel the holiday debut, Sony hit back at the hackers …
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, Washington Post, Power Line, Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit, The Verge and The PJ Tatler, more at Mediagazer »
David Auerbach / Slate:
The Sony Hackers Are Terrorists — We've never seen a cyberattack like this one. Here's why it's so frightening. — The Sony Pictures hack is important, and the Sony Pictures hack is terrifying. — In a series of cyberattacks that were first noticed on Nov. 24, a mysterious group calling itself …
Discussion:
Tech Times, Mashable and New York Times
Dennis Romero / LA Weekly:
Killing The Interview Opens Studios to Terrorist Manipulation
Killing The Interview Opens Studios to Terrorist Manipulation
Discussion:
Power Line, Screen Rant, The Daily Banter and The Hill
Erin Dooley / ABC News:
Obama: Sony Hack Proves U.S. Needs to Do ‘A Lot More’ to Protect Against Cyber Threats
Obama: Sony Hack Proves U.S. Needs to Do ‘A Lot More’ to Protect Against Cyber Threats
Discussion:
Associated Press, Politico and abc11.com
Peter Baker / New York Times:
U.S. to Restore Full Relations With Cuba, Erasing a Last Trace of Cold War Hostility … WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday ordered the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba and the opening of an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century as he vowed to …
Discussion:
FiveThirtyEight, Washington Post, The Nation, USA Today, CNN, The White House, The Atlantic Online, rubio.senate.gov, Daily Signal, BuzzFeed, Bloomberg, Slantpoint, Religion News Service, Gawker, Addicting Info, JSOnline, The Daily Banter, The Hill, Poynter, Spectator, The Dish, Outside the Beltway, Washington Free Beacon, Daily Kos, Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, National Review, ABC News, Balloon Juice, Taylor Marsh and iwritetheblogggs
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Politico:
Republicans livid over Cuba talks, call it appeasement — Leading Republicans reacted with outrage Wednesday over the Obama administration's move to normalize relations with Cuba, with some casting it as appeasement and the product of blackmail by the communist Castro government.
Facebook:
STATEMENT: Governor Jeb Bush on President Obama's Cuba Policy Announcement — The Obama Administration's decision to restore diplomatic ties with Cuba is the latest foreign policy misstep by this President, and another dramatic overreach of his executive authority.
Discussion:
Bloomberg Politics, Hot Air, OnPolitics and Associated Press
Politico:
The Democrats' risky Cuba bet — Will Florida's changing demographics offset a backlash among older Cuban-Americans? — Barack Obama, who won the swing state of Florida in the 2012 election by 50.01 percent to 49.13 percent, knows just how many presidential candidacies have gotten bogged …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Washington Post and New York Times
Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Marco Rubio Challenges The Pope On Obama's New Cuba Policy
Marco Rubio Challenges The Pope On Obama's New Cuba Policy
Discussion:
Associated Press, Hinterland Gazette, Balloon Juice, Hot Air, Washington Monthly and Daily Kos
City Journal:
The Last Communist City — A visit to the dystopian Havana that tourists never see
The Last Communist City — A visit to the dystopian Havana that tourists never see
Discussion:
Hot Air and Slantpoint
Eyder Peralta / NPR:
Polls Show Cuban-American Views On U.S.-Cuba Relations Are Nuanced
Polls Show Cuban-American Views On U.S.-Cuba Relations Are Nuanced
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Politico, Wall Street Journal, Religion Dispatches, Hullabaloo and No More Mister Nice Blog
Reuters:
Florida's Cuban Americans rejoice at U.S. policy overhaul
Florida's Cuban Americans rejoice at U.S. policy overhaul
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Washington Post and Booman Tribune
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Did Ted Cruz really bungle the lame-duck session for Republicans? — There's no doubt that many Republican senators, and plenty of conservative commentators, were angry at GOP Sen. Ted Cruz for raising a time-consuming objection to passage of the “Cromnibus” spending bill in an effort …
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Lindsey Graham / The Huffington Post:
The Senate Just Cemented Obama's Judicial Legacy
The Senate Just Cemented Obama's Judicial Legacy
Discussion:
Bloomberg View, RH Reality Check, Daily Kos, Lawyers, Guns & Money, National Review, Washington Post and LGBTQ Nation
Sarah Wheaton / Politico:
Vermont bails on single-payer health care — Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday dropped his plan to enact a single-payer health care system in his state — a plan that had won praise from liberals but never really got much past the framework stage. — “This is not the right time” …
Discussion:
Viking Pundit
Chris Davis / KCEN-TV:
Words Exchanged Before KCEN Employee Shot in Station Parking Lot — (KCEN) - Law enforcement officials have taken a man who was hold up inside of a house into custody. They are calling him a person of interest in the shooting of Patrick Crawford. But they are not saying whether or not he is the shooter.
Nick Anderson / Washington Post:
Johns Hopkins mistakenly says ‘yes’ to hundreds of rejected applicants — Sam Stephenson was steeling himself for another round of college applications after his first choice, Johns Hopkins University, turned him down. Then the 17-year-old from Culpeper County in Virginia received an e-mail …
Discussion:
CNN, 6abc.com, Inside Higher Ed, New York Magazine and ABC News
Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:
Citing Health Risks, Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York State — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's administration announced on Wednesday that it would ban hydraulic fracturing in New York State because of concerns over health risks, ending years of debate over a method of extracting natural gas.
Mark Sherman / Associated Press:
Executions, new death sentences continue to fall — WASHINGTON (AP) — Executions and new death sentences dropped to their lowest numbers in decades in 2014, an anti-death penalty group said in a new report. — The Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that opposes executions …
Katherine Timpf / National Review:
U Michigan Department Chair: We Should ‘Hate Republicans’ — A University of Michigan department chairwoman has published an article titled, “It's Okay To Hate Republicans,” which will probably make all of her conservative students feel really comfortable and totally certain that they're being graded fairly.
Jim Tankersley / Washington Post:
A black hole for our best and brightest — Wall Street is expanding, and the economy is worse off for it. — NEW YORK — The thing Deborah Jackson remembers from her first interviews at Goldman Sachs is the slogan. It was stamped on the glass doors of the offices in the investment bank's headquarters …
Joe Arnold / WHAS-TV:
Grimes pledges legal challenge if Paul attempts simultaneous races — Alison Lundergan Grimes says she will challenge Senator Rand Paul if he tries to get on the ballot for both Senate re-election and president — FRANKFORT, Ky. (WHAS11) — Six weeks after she lost her own bid for the U-S Senate …
Discussion:
Politico and Political Wire
Phil / Uber Blog:
Our Commitment to Safety — Millions of people have come to rely on Uber for daily commutes, special nights out, and reliable transportation for their loved ones. Riders are served by the hundreds of thousands of Uber driver partners whose service reduces drunk and distracted driving …
Discussion:
PandoDaily, New York Times, Raw Story, Mashable and The Verge
Daily Mail:
Time to lay off the doughnuts! Study reveals cops are the most obese workers in America — Their job is to protect and serve - but it seems some police officers interpret this as an excuse to enjoy too many extra servings at the lunch table. — A study has revealed US cops have the highest rates …
Discussion:
Liberaland
Hadas Gold / Politico:
DCCC list-builds off Stephen Colbert — The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is taking advantage of “The Colbert Report's” final few days, with an email blast asking people to sign a ‘Thank you’ card for host Stephen Colbert. — “After nine great years, the Colbert Report is going off the air,” the email reads.
Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
Jeb Bush Paid By Bank That Violated Cuba Sanctions — The former Florida governor serves as an adviser to Barclays, which was fined nearly $300 million for violating sanctions in 2010, prior to his work there. — Jonathan Ernst / Reuters — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush blasted …