Ben Affleck wanted slave owner ancestor 'censored' from Finding Your Roots episode

Ben Affleck persuaded the producers of Finding Your Roots to edit out details of how his ancestors were slave owners even though it was a breach of PBS editorial rules.
The new Batman star, who supports a number of liberal causes, objected to the ancestry TV show airing how his distant relations were racist, leaked Sony emails reveal.
Instead viewers were shown heartwarming stories of how his third grandfather was a mystic in the Civil War and how his sixth grandfather was a patriot who fought in the American Revolution.
Daily Mail Online has reviewed a transcript of the show and watched the video and there is no mention of slavery in the part featuring Affleck.
The Sony emails show that the makers of Finding Your Roots, including Emmy Award-winning host and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr, engaged in a deliberate cover-up despite knowing that it was a ‘violation’ of PBS rules, as Gates puts it.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z3Xanlt24l

I don't care that Affleck had a slave owner in his family history. He shouldn't either. Family history is interesting sometimes you find out good and sometimes bad when you dig into it. He isn't responsible for the negative acts of his ancestors nor can he take credit for their achievements, any more than I can. My ancestors just contributed to my DNA. They don't define me and who I am. I do that.

I do find it abhorrent that he is so concerned about his public image and PR that he had the show go against their rules to control his image. I'm glad he was exposed for doing so.

Or maybe he was concerned that if someday reparations were mandated…they'd go after his deep pockets big-time. : )

White guilt at its finest.

I have a slave owning ancestor. The records show he owned 15 on his rice plantation along the Cape Fear River in SCNC. At some point he offered all of them a parcel of land or passage Liberia. Many of them opted to stay. There is a large contingent of people still living there today...that carry his name. I have even met some of them and relayed this story. They also have records (mostly from family bibles) proving the connection. There is no reason to be ashamed about things that you had zero to do with. In fact these things are a part of our history good or bad and should be simply treated as such. Affleck is a nutter.

Shame on PBS for caving. They probably wouldn't have done it for a smaller celebrity, so they shouldn't have done it in this case.

Well Ben, Maybe We can Justify Reparations starting with Your Millions of Dollars.

It's silly for him to censor this, and really counterproductive for his outspoken political stances. But, he's a millionaire actor whose entire career revolves around public perception, and who holds no special responsibility to the public to be especially honest. What do you expect?

The public figure argument makes sense. However, you shouldn't turn that on its head and lie to make yourself sound better.

The fact that people think you would be negatively impacted based on who your greatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgrandfather was or did reflects poorly on Americans.

Liberal revisionist.

(04-18-2015 11:35 AM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  The public figure argument makes sense. However, you shouldn't turn that on its head and lie to make yourself sound better.

The fact that people think you would be negatively impacted based on who your greatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgrandfather was or did reflects poorly on Americans.

No, just said people's opinions of them.

Leave it in, nobody cares. Take it out and you look like a thin-skinned idiot.

If he could just convince his wife to make a porno, I'd consider forgetting this latest stupidity.

Why in the world would Affleck be embarrassed? It's not like HE actually owned a slave. Ridiculous.

My family owned slaves. I have copies of family Wills proving this dating back to the Revolutionary War. It is part of the fabric of this country.

By the way , you cannot look at that time in the past through the lenses of today's mindset. That is called "Presentism".
Best thing about Ben,...is his wife. She's probably the best looking thing to come out of West Virginia.

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(04-18-2015 11:16 AM)UCF08 Wrote:  It's silly for him to censor this, and really counterproductive for his outspoken political stances. But, he's a millionaire actor whose entire career revolves around public perception, and who holds no special responsibility to the public to be especially honest. What do you expect?

so now we know how the bible was developed....

great point!

history manipulated once again....

you guys don't go close enough to diving in the 'rabbit hole'....it's just too scary....

oh wellzy.....

(04-19-2015 09:09 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Why in the world would Affleck be embarrassed? It's not like HE actually owned a slave. Ridiculous.

Hollywood is politically correct. This may be worse than admitting he once voted Republican. He could be blackballed and never work again.

(04-18-2015 11:35 AM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  The public figure argument makes sense. However, you shouldn't turn that on its head and lie to make yourself sound better.

The fact that people think you would be negatively impacted based on who your greatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgrandfather was or did reflects poorly on Americans.

Oh I agree that he shouldn't have done it, and quite frankly, I really don't think the american public would have cared all that much.

(04-19-2015 05:24 PM)UConn-SMU Wrote:  

(04-19-2015 09:09 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Why in the world would Affleck be embarrassed? It's not like HE actually owned a slave. Ridiculous.

Hollywood is politically correct. This may be worse than admitting he once voted Republican. He could be blackballed and never work again.

now we're gaining on it....veddy good....

muzzling the 'facts' relative to the masses makes it easier to manipulate whilst capitulating and pontificating agenda...

sounds like religion and politics to me....

(04-19-2015 01:37 PM)South Carolina Duke Wrote:  My family owned slaves. I have copies of family Wills proving this dating back to the Revolutionary War. It is part of the fabric of this country.

By the way , you cannot look at that time in the past through the lenses of today's mindset. That is called "Presentism".
Best thing about Ben,...is his wife. She's probably the best looking thing to come out of West Virginia.

Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

Mine fought with Andrew Jackson at Horsehead bend alabama and his son fought in the civil war and was pardoned at Greensboro nc. They took his mount and made him walk home. I have a picture of him

I feel no guilt over their actions. I don't have any anger towards or guilt from the actions of the Vikings or Charlemagne or Ghengis Khan or Alexander the great either

I'm pretty sure you mean Horseshoe Bend.

I had people fight on both sides in that war, and a take neither pride nor shame from any of them. I wasn't there.

My ancestry held one of the 10 largest plantations in the first half of the 1800's, nothing to be ashamed of, it's part of American history.

(04-19-2015 08:39 PM)shere khan Wrote:  

(04-19-2015 01:37 PM)South Carolina Duke Wrote:  My family owned slaves. I have copies of family Wills proving this dating back to the Revolutionary War. It is part of the fabric of this country.

By the way , you cannot look at that time in the past through the lenses of today's mindset. That is called "Presentism".
Best thing about Ben,...is his wife. She's probably the best looking thing to come out of West Virginia.

Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

Mine fought with Andrew Jackson at Horsehead bend alabama and his son fought in the civil war and was pardoned at Greensboro nc. They took his mount and made him walk home. I have a picture of him

I feel no guilt over their actions. I don't have any anger towards or guilt from the actions of the Vikings or Charlemagne or Ghengis Khan or Alexander the great either

I'm half Scandinavian. I have no Viking guilt at all. And descendants of slave owners shouldn't feel guilty.

Even the children of mass murderers should feel no guilt or responsibility if their father went crazy.