On Wednesday,PBS confirmed that they will postpone the future seasons of 'Finding Your Roots' after an investigation showed that Ben Affleck violated the network's standards.
According to the PBS statement, "PBS and WNET have determined that the 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. Affleck's efforts to affect program content."
As a result, PBS decided that the series of the third season has been postponed until the changes of staffing are made, including hiring of new checker. And they are still determining whether to continue or not the season four of the program.
The investigation started when Ben Affleck reportedly requested that the program will not reveal that his ancestor owned slaves. Affleck's request to omit the detail about his ancestor was revealed when the conversation between Sony Entertainment Chairman Michael Lynton and the show's host and producer Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. leaked in the WikiLeaks archive.
The thread of the email clearly shows that Affleck made a request, Gate asked for an advice, he said in the July 2014 email, "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."
"Take it out if no one knows, but if it gets out that you are editing the material based on this kind of sensitivity then it gets tricky. Again, all things being equal I would definitely take it out." Lynton responded to Gates.
After the controversy spilled, Ben Affleck apologizes through Facebook in April for making the request. He was "embarrassed" when he discovered that his ancestor owned slaves and he didn't want it to be televised. "I regret my initial thoughts that the issue of slavery not be included in the story," he wrote on Facebook.
In a statement on released on Wednesday, Gates said, "I sincerely regret not discussing my editing rationale with our partners at PBS and WNET and I apologize for putting PBS and its member stations in the position of having to defend the integrity of their programming."
