Ben Affleck demanded Henry Louis Gaves edit out his slave-owning ancestry on Finding Your Roots, hacked Sony emails claim.
Quote:
According to the leaked emails, Gates became embroiled in an exchange with Sony's chief executive about Affleck’s request.
In an email sent to Michael Lynton shortly before the show's second season premiere, last autumn, Gates wrote that an unnamed "megastar" had asked producers to "edit out something about one of his ancestors – the fact that he owned slaves".
He added that "four or five of our guests this season descend from slave owners", including the renowned documentary-maker Ken Burns, the man behind famous films including The Civil War.
"We've never had anyone ever try to censor or edit what we found. What do we do?" Gates wrote.
Lynton asked who else knew about the information in question, advising that "it gets tricky" when editing out material "based on this kind of sensitivity".
Gates replied that the producers of the show, the star's PR agents and PBS knew about the slave-owning ancestor.
"To do this would be a violation of PBS rules, actually, even for Batman," Gates wrote, apparently before he was due to take a flight.
Lynton wrote back: "It is tricky because it may get out that you made the change and it comes down to editorial integrity. We can talk when you land."
In the final email of the exchange, Gates seems to indicate that the producers of the show will include the information.
"Once we open the door to censorship, we lose control of the brand," he wrote.
However, that part of Affleck's story never aired.
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In a statement Gates had the nards to claim that it was an editorial choice to prioritize other stories, not a blatant cave to a Hollywood big shot. The leaked emails make that excuse look fucking ridiculous. You opened the door to censorship and now your brand is shit.
Finding Your Roots was already a marked decline in quality from Gates' previous shows -- rushed, superficial, gimmicky -- and now it's been exposed as deceptive by omission too.
I officially hate Ben Affleck for being a cowardly, egotistical bag of crap. If Ken Burns can take the hit of having slave-owning ancestors, than so can that lummox.