Cambridge, MA native Ben Affleck with Massachusett's most prominent and wealthiest politician.
Looks as if Affleck found his roots and did not like them. So he asked Professor Gates if he could rewrite them, and rewrite them he did. What else was covered up at Harvard University by their scholars which prominent persons did not like? It indicates that all things great and small are for sale even at Harvard University with its $36 billion endowment.
[From article]
PBS launched its investigation after it was reported that Affleck requested the program not reveal his ancestor's slave-holding history in the 2014 episode. The Associated Press examined historical documents and found that Affleck's great-great-great-grandfather owned 24 slaves.
The review found that co-producers violated PBS standards by allowing improper influence on the show's editorial process and failed to inform PBS or producing station WNET of Affleck's efforts to affect the program's content.
In a statement, series host and executive producer Henry Louis Gates Jr. apologized for forcing PBS to defend the integrity of its programming. He said he's working with public TV on new guidelines to ensure increased transparency.
[. . .]
Gates and PBS said in April they didn't censor the slave-owner details. Instead, more interesting ancestors of Affleck emerged and Gates chose to highlight them instead in the show that traces the ancestry of well-known guests.
But in an email exchange between Gates and Sony Pictures chief executive Michael Lynton, Gates asks Lynton for advice on how to handle Affleck's request.
"Here's my dilemma," says Gates in one email, dated July 22, 2014, "confidentially, for the first time, one of our guests has asked us to edit out something about one of his ancestors — the fact that he owned slaves. Now, four or five of our guests this season descend from slave owners, including (documentary filmmaker) Ken Burns. We've never had anyone ever try to censor or edit what we found. He's a megastar. What do we do?"
Lynton replied that it all depends on who knows that the information was in the documentary already.
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2015/06/25/pbs-halts-production-finding-your-roots-amid-flap-over-ben-affleck-episode/
PBS halts production of 'Finding Your Roots' amid flap over Ben Affleck episode
Published June 25, 2015Associated Press
Fox News
* * *
[From article]
Well, Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates Jr. has learned his lesson about getting cozy with the stars.
After investigating Ben Affleck’s ancestry for his PBS program “Finding Your Roots,” Gates and his team discovered that Affleck, who won an Oscar for producing “Argo” — the film about the heroic rescue of American embassy workers from Iran after the death of the Shah — had an ancestor who was a Hollywood p.r. nightmare: a slave owner. At the request of the star, and obviously his team of handlers, the info was suppressed and not included in the segment on Affleck when it aired last October.
Well, Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates Jr. has learned his lesson about getting cozy with the stars. After investigating Ben Affleck’s ancestry for his PBS program “Finding Your Roots,” Gates and his team discovered that Affleck, who won an Oscar for producing “Argo” — the film about the heroic rescue of American embassy workers from Iran after the death of the Shah — had an ancestor who was a Hollywood p.r. nightmare: a slave owner. At the request of the star, and obviously his team of handlers, the info was suppressed and not included in the segment on Affleck when it aired last October. Mortified by this omission, PBS, which depends on grants, corporate sponsorship and viewer contributions to keep itself going, conducted an investigation into “Finding Your Roots,” looking for possible malfeasance — and found plenty. Affleck, they determined, had “improper influence” on the sell-out producers and the scheduling of the third season of “Finding Your Roots” has been delayed pending changes in both staffing and editorial quality control.
[. . .]
But did that mean that Affleck, who promoted his blue-collar Boston roots in the “Good Will Hunting” part of his career, had to get his Hollywood machine to lean on the obviously naive Gates — who must have thought, “Gee, these Hollywood stars must really like me because they’re on my show”?
Mortified by this omission, PBS, which depends on grants, corporate sponsorship and viewer contributions to keep itself going, conducted an investigation into “Finding Your Roots,” looking for possible malfeasance — and found plenty. Affleck, they determined, had “improper influence” on the sell-out producers and the scheduling of the third season of “Finding Your Roots” has been delayed pending changes in both staffing and editorial quality control.
[. . .]
But did that mean that Affleck, who promoted his blue-collar Boston roots in the “Good Will Hunting” part of his career, had to get his Hollywood machine to lean on the obviously naive Gates — who must have thought, “Gee, these Hollywood stars must really like me because they’re on my show”?
http://nypost.com/2015/06/25/ben-affleck-proves-hes-a-common-hollywood-blowhard/
Ben Affleck proves he’s a common Hollywood blowhard
By Robert Rorke
New York Post
June 25, 2015 | 3:42pm
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