Finding Your Roots, which airs on PBS, has been suspended following an investigation in which the network found that embarrassing details about Ben Affleck’s ancestors were censored. Finding Your Roots traces the family histories of celebrities, and, in accordance with network policy, is supposed to be devoted to revealing the truth, even if show guests aren’t happy about it.
PBS’ ‘Finding Your Roots’ Suspended Due to Ben Affleck Slave-Master Drama http://t.co/dch6hlzCtJ pic.twitter.com/so0EQXaxAT
— Colorlines (@Colorlines) June 25, 2015
When Ben agreed to be on the show, he hoped to find “ the roots of his family’s interest in social justice,” reports the Washington Post . Instead, researchers divulged that he had an ancestor that owned slaves. According to the Washington Post , Benjamin Cole, a great-great-great grandparent on Affleck’s mother’s side, was the “trustee” of seven slaves, as well as a sheriff in Chatham County, Georgia, in the 1850s.
Affleck requested the embarrassing information be suppressed — and the public would never have known, except the finding was revealed during the Sony Entertainment hack this spring, reports News Max. According to the Washington Post , the Sony Entertainment hack divulged email correspondence between Harvard professor and show co-producer Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Sony CEO Michael Lynton — correspondences that referenced the celebrity’s requests to have researched information censored on Finding Your Roots .
Citing Ben Affleck’s “improper influence,” PBS suspends “Finding Your Roots” http://t.co/43P35NKL8Z pic.twitter.com/mFyRzM0BUQ
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 25, 2015
The station, which claims it was unaware of the censorship, responded to public pressure, and launched an investigation into Finding Your Roots . The network suspended Finding Your Roots in the wake of the investigation.
“Editorial integrity is essential to PBS. As a mission-driven media enterprise, we know that earning and keeping the trust of the American public are our most important priorities,” said Beth Hoppe, the station’s Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming, in a statement released by the network explaining why it suspended Finding Your Roots .
“ [Finding Your Roots] co-producers violated PBS standards by failing to shield the creative and editorial process from improper influence, and by failing to inform PBS or WNET of Mr. Affleck’s efforts to affect program content,” the station explained about why it suspended Finding Your Roots .
The celebrity admitted in an April interview that he was “embarrassed” of his ancestor. “I didn’t want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves.”
Although “[t]he co-producers of Finding Your Roots have a strong track record of creating high-quality programming…over many years,” the station has suspended the show until “improved editorial and production processes” are in place to “ensure that all future projects will adhere to [our] editorial guidelines.”
[Image from YouTube]
