Why Mitt Romney may have the right response for Sony's 'The Interview'

Mitt Romney's suggested effort would be the latest in a long history of using America media to raise money for a worthy cause. 

|
Michael Holahan, AP Photo, The Augusta Chronicle, File
Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney addresses an enthusiastic crowd during a campaign event for Republican senate candidate David Perdue, Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 29, 2014, in Augusta, Ga.

What should Sony Pictures Entertainment, reeling from an ongoing data hack, do after it recalls "The Interview" after mounting pressure from the hackers themselves?

On Wednesday night, Mitt Romney gave his two cents.

Though a Sony spokeswoman said that the company “has no further release plans for the film,” former Massachusetts Governor Romney’s idea isn’t so far-fetched, at least in the context of using American media as a fund-raiser.

The charity album has been a staple of the US music industry for decades, and other types of media have also succeeded in bringing attention — and money — to different causes.

Perhaps the best known group is Band Aid.

In 1984, 40 artists — including Sting, Bono, and Phil Collins — came together to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas” as part of Band Aid. Proceeds from the single have contributed more than $24 million to anti-poverty efforts in Ethiopia, according to The Telegraph.

Band Aid 30, the group’s latest iteration, re-released the song in mid-November with a video highlighting the devastation brought by Ebola to West Africa. Proceeds will support Ebola prevention, and Bloomberg Businessweek reported that the track raised $1.5 million in minutes. The Ebola outbreak has claimed the lives of 6,900 people in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, according to recent estimates from the Center for Disease Control. 

Several singles in the 1990s supported AIDS charities and research, and after the Sept. 11, 2001 attack, many artists sang to support victims and relief.

Outside of the music industry, the Independent Journal Review notes, comedian Louis CK split some earnings from a 2011 streaming performance online to different charities.

The Blockbuster hit “Catching Fire” (2013) was screened two days before the wider film release as a charity fundraiser as well. The event brought in $40,000 for St. Mary’s House, a center that helps teens and adults with intellectual disabilities, WLKY reported

And having a "suggested donation" instead of a fixed ticket price is not unprecedented, either.

In 2007, Radiohead asked buyers to pay what they want before purchasing its “In Rainbows” album. Wired reported that about 40 percent of downloaders paid for the album in the first month, which earned $3 million for the band. 

As some would-be viewers of "The Interview" say they are eager to see the film — if only to better understand what provoked the North Korea's hackers  — maybe Romney is onto something.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Why Mitt Romney may have the right response for Sony's 'The Interview'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2014/1218/Why-Mitt-Romney-may-have-the-right-response-for-Sony-s-The-Interview
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe