Suspension Was the Only Option for PBS in 'Finding Your Roots' Controversy

Its integrity was on the line.

PBS has put the documentary program Finding Your Roots on an unwanted hiatus after it was revealed that producers of the show, including host and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., granted Ben Affleck‘s wish that his segment omit his slave-owning ancestry. The request came to light as a result of the Sony email hack. Affleck has since apologized for the edit. Gates, in those emails, questioned the omission, worried that they would be interpreted as censorship, but later defended it by saying there were other things in Affleck’s past that were more interesting than this detail.

“[T]he series 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.

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