Ben Affleck caught covering up story of slave-owning ancestors, makes public apology

After a search of his ancestry revealed that one of his distant relatives was an owner of slaves, Ben Affleck revealed Tuesday on his Facebook that he lobbied Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., executive producer of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” much like he would, as an actor to a director, in respect to what “takes’’ of his should be used in a movie.

“I didn’t want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves,’’ Affleck disclosed on his Facebook page. “I was embarrassed. The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth.”

And while PBS and Gates had previously defended the choice to leave Affleck’s slave-owning ancestry out of the episode, PBS and WNET announced today that they are now conducting an internal review, led by their respective programming teams, into the “circumstances around’’ the Affleck episode, “Roots of Freedom,” E! News reported.

“I regret my initial thoughts that the issue of slavery not be included in the story,’’ Affleck wrote on Facebook. “We deserve neither credit nor blame for our ancestors and the degree of interest in this story suggests that we are, as a nation, still grappling with the terrible legacy of slavery. It is an examination well worth continuing.’’

It also a similar sentiment shared by WNET and PBS.

“In order to gather the facts to determine whether or not all of PBS’ editorial standards were observed, on Saturday, April 18, we began an internal review,’’ they said in a statement obtained by E! News. “We have been moving forward deliberately yet swiftly to conduct this review.”

Be social, please share!

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail