Yesterday we covered the news, revealed after the Sony hack email dump on Wikileaks, that Ben Affleck had asked the PBS show Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. to edit out segments revealing that he had a slave owning ancestor. Many of you noted that Affleck has political aspirations and that may be why he doesn’t want the negative parts of his ancestry to be made public. That could be the case, but I don’t understand that reasoning at all. We can’t help who our ancestors are. Of course Affleck could have been getting bad advice, as Gates noted in his email to Sony CEO Michael Lynton, but he chose to follow it and to strong arm PBS.
Many people have noted that this news compromises PBS’s integrity, as Gates brought up in his emails to Lynton. I listen to NPR and watch PBS and while I do think that I get much higher quality, in-depth programming from those nonprofit sources, I know they’re not unbiased. I think most people know this, and aren’t faulting PBS or Gates for giving in to Affleck’s demands. He’s a powerful Hollywood player and he dangled the carrot of getting Matt Damon on the show. PBS is not immune to pressure from Hollywood, and this story illustrates that.
Ultimately this is a much bigger PR debacle for Affleck than the non-issue of having a slave owning ancestor. It shows that he’s more concerned with covering up any and all negativity rather than being honest with the public. If he’s this controlling about a minor issue, imagine how slippery he’d be as a politician (especially if the issue at hand is Ben’s gambling or the rumors about his personal life). This speaks to his character. Anderson Cooper and and Bill Paxton (among others) were confronted with the news that they had distant slave-owning relatives, and both dealt with it head-on, as you would expect from celebrities on genealogy shows.
Here’s the segment of Finding Your Roots where Cooper is told that his fourth great grandfather was beaten to death by a slave. Anderson said the guy probably deserved it.
In contrast to Cooper, did Affleck react poorly when confronted with the news that he had a slave-owning ancestor? We’ve seen him have knee jerk reactions to issues rather than consider them thoughtfully. He is a committed philanthropist, but I do question whether he’s cut out for politics, if that’s his intention. As of now, Affleck has not responded to this issue on social media or with a statement. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and PBS issued comprehensive statements defending their editorial choice, as we covered yesterday.
Over the weekend, right around the time that the news broke that Affleck had censored his genealogy, the new teaser trailer for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice conveniently “leaked.” Then, Warner Brothers put out the official version. It does seem like good timing to change focus from Affleck’s scandal. Yesterday, director Zach Snyder put out a new photo of the Batsuit. The official reasoning for the photo release was to thank fans for coming to IMAX theaters to screen the teaser trailer last night. (That was meant to be the first viewing of the trailer, but it “leaked” ahead of time. Slashfilm reports that Snyder added six additional seconds to the IMAX version of the trailer to thank fans.) If anything, this photo shows that the Batsuit can be worn by just about any tall, filled out actor.
Ben Affleck is shown at the Farmer’s Market on Sunday with his daughter, Seraphina, and out with his wife, Jennifer Garner, and their son, Samuel on April 7. Credit: FameFlynet
Sounds like he’d make the perfect politician.
Yea, pretty much nailed it there.
Since he cant control what his ancestors did, whats the big deal???
Agreed.
I know, and reading Affleck’s interviews he comes across as whip smart and knowledgable on issues.
Him trying to shut this down this makes me think less of him tbh.
I don’t understand too. I am not American but isn’t slavery a big part of America’s history? Is it really a big shock that a white person would have slave owning ancestors?
I think that this is much worse for PBS. Caving to the ridiculous sensitivities of celebrity makes their programing questionable. You can have a position, opinion, etc, but if you present all the facts in equal measure, then you are not harmful to the coverage. Removing facts that are inconvenient makes you look like you are whoring. Why not just abandon airing the segment with Aflac?
I agree. PBS has lost credibility. Affleck just looks stupid.
Agree. He went into it with the idea that he could discover where he came from. It’s dishonest to edit out the parts you don’t like.
Totally agree
If this had been a news story/show on PBS or NPR, I would agree. But for entertainment purposes, I don’t see it as a huge deal. I think it is bad and wrong, but I won’t stop watching PBS or say that PBS has lost credibility. I think these celebrity genealogy shows are scripted affairs just like any other celebrity show. It isn’t like it was 60 Minutes.
60 minutes is the WORST: powder puff questions, no challenges, I could go on and on.
Yes, we know it is scripted, but PBS touts itself above the standards of other scripted material, it even made fun of reality programming a little while back. It may not change my opinion on all other programming, but unfortunately, Gates’ show looks like crap. If they change the name to finding only your roots that you like, fine. The entire point of genealogy is that it is a mixed bag and that you can gain perspective from the entirety of your ancestors.
He didn’t own the slaves himself. We can’t change history, and his ancestors weren’t the only ones who had slaves. He did nothing wrong
I didn’t do anything wrong (with slave holder ancestors), but I certainly live with the horror of what they did!
You didn’t do anything wrong, didn’t see them to free them, and lots of horrible things happened before, during, and after to all kinds of people. Live your life and don’t just remember bad things
You’re right and that’s why everyone’s wondering why he wanted to hide it. His ancestors being crappy people don’t reflect on him as a person and if he had let that portion air, no one would have made a big deal out of it. But the fact that he did have it hidden is why people are getting on him. He just comes off shady.
The internet has changed the way celebrities manipulate their images.
Ben just found out the hard way, what not to do.
If he had addressed it on the show, we would have forgotten about it by now.
I agree with you that the internet has drastically changed how celebrities manage their image, but I also think that it’s changed how we perceive celebrity and scandal (obviously). There’s only a finite amount of information to consume every day, so in an effort to create content and discussion, items are now not only considered newsworthy that we could very possibly bypass, but also parsed and discussed all day. This site has a specific audience and viewpoint, that doesn’t necessarily reflect the larger public – many folks still have no clue who Benedict Cumberbatch is, and yet he is an All Star here on Celebitchy. The post on Affleck yesterday may have generated the most clicks or comments, but I think that’s given a distorted view on the size of this scandal.
I hope that ramble made sense.
Response to Bridget above ^ It definitely made sense. I have found myself talking to friends about things discussed here and they give me weird looks LOL
It’s so easy for people to NOT realize that just because they read it or discussed it on the internet, it doesn’t mean that the whole world knows about it.
On the surface, this “scandal” should not be worth much , but it is now on the national news and is being reported by legitimate news sources and is the brunt of late night jokes, not just gossip and tabloid sites. As someone once said, it is not the deed, but the cover-up that causes problems and that is what is happening here. He really has nothing to be ashamed of, but by having it edited, it made it seem like there was.
And Batman V Superman looks depressing.
Assuming anyone watched it. My own genealogy barely interests me. I couldn’t care less about someone else’s.
That’s what I keep wondering about this show and the one a few years ago called “Who Do You Think You Are?” Why would anyone care about a celebrity discovering his or her ancestry?
Larry Wilmore did a great bit on this last night. Yes, Ben can’t help what his relatives did, but the cover up makes it so much worse.
http://www.cc.com/full-episodes/ldk30u/the-nightly-show-april-20–2015—britt-mchenry—ben-affleck-s-ancestry-season-1-ep-01044
Love that link, swlea, thanks! And if Ben ever does decide to enter politics, this is a good lesson for our future public servant (Gag!) that the cover-up is worse than the transgression! Hahahahahahaha.
Thank you for sharing this! I missed it doing Mom stuff. Hilarious!
Snyder was holding a special event just to unveil the Batman-Superman trailer, that wasn’t a “leak”, that was a leak. They wouldn’t fumble the unveiling over such a minor scandal. There’s a lot riding on this movie, too bad it looks like its going to be a chore tp watch.
Really, what could he possibly say? A very dumb call on his part.
ITA however, just like the article states, people will go to great lengths to question his credibility. It is true that you can’t blame who your ancestors are and I think he must have panicked at the news even though it is something he couldn’t control. The media makes a small issue a big deal these days and that’s what he probably thought would happen if people knew. Unfortunately, it blew in his face
I read a lot of yesterday’s thread, but was there any discussion of Affleck’s filmed reaction to this news and whether or not that might’ve been part of why he wanted it edited out? Watching AC’s response makes me wonder if ol’ Ben could’ve acted with that much class and understanding.
As an admittedly biased AC fangirl, I still say no, I don’t think Affleck is capable of that much maturity and poise. I am biased, though, because I adore AC, and Affleck comes across as a sleaze. It isn’t just the cheating rumors; it’s something in the arrogance of how he carries himself. Of course, most celebrities are narcissisistic, but he just rubs me wrong.
It’s such a twisted irony that his hiding it is far more disturbing than him admitting his ancestors were slave owners. I’m sure most of us have despicable people in our lineage somewhere. Some of us have despicable parents; It’s how you chose to conduct yourself that is the real barometer of character.
I was thinking yesterday that that was probably the problem. If he does have any political aspirations, his response to something like this matters far more than the actual revelation, so if his response was just a little off or he said anything that could be taken out of context I can see why he’d not want it aired. It would also explain the time lapse, maybe he saw the footage months after it was filmed and realised he didn’t come off well?
If he had just handled it like Anderson Cooper had, it wouldn’t be a huge deal. Just as Cooper said ” this is the history of our country.”
Anderson handled it best and I have yet to see BC even mention it besides that really dated interview about his mom.
PBS loses some credibility, and that sucks. I’m still kind of stunned by BA’s decision to go on the show and not consider that he might find out he has a slave-owning ancestry. What white person does not know that this is a possibility??? Duh.
If he is worried about the information hurting his political opportunities, I hate to say it, but some Americans are dumb enough to be manipulated by that type of information. Howard Dean lost his chance at the presidency because he MADE A WEIRD NOISE when he was excited. And that was it for him–because making a weird noise means you’re crazy.
If he did this for a political career, then it was stupid to initiate a cover up since too many people knew what he requested and why.
Gates shouldn’t have emailed the Sony exec. He should have handled this in-house and have been strong enough to say no to Affleck’s request.
It wouldn’t have mattered if Dean had made that crazy noise or not. He wasn’t going to beat Kerry anyways.
Yeah, I don’t support the cover-up, just noting how some people think. And it’s true that Dean wouldn’t have beaten Kerry, but he’s never really recovered from that flap. That’s pretty pathetic since it was nothing.
I adore Anderson Cooper and I adore his response.
no kidding! He is a STAR with that response. awesome.
I think no one is under any impression that this show covers every ancestor of every person and every bit of their story. No one has lost any credibility and this is his story. Calm your tits, people.
Exactly. The irony – he knew the media would blow it up if that info came out (just like they blow everything up) so he asked for it to not come out. And now it has, and people are making a big deal about how he handled it. He wasn’t wrong, then, to assume that everyone would make a big deal if it came out – people always tend to when it comes to anything Ben does.
And no I don’t agree that if he handled it like Anderson, it would be a non story. Number one reason being he’s Ben Affleck, not Anderson Cooper. They have different roles in entertainment and people are always looking for some dish on Ben while barely anyone cares about Anderson’s personal life (it’s not a part of his job).
It’s significant to the extent that it was intentionally edited out but also that it was a part of American History that some in this country have tried to rewrite, and apparently are still interested in ‘forgetting’ or avoiding. And I disagree that people would have lost their shit over it if he responded that he was offended by it. If that would have been found in my family history, somehow, I would have responded naturally by saying how terrible it was and that I’m glad that it no longer exists.
The fact that he tried to cover it up is the problem. Shame on PBS. Also, *of course* he paraded his kid around the day after this broke. He’s so predictable.
When this story first broke I found my old ancestry.com account and did some more digging. Apparently some reverend ancestor of mine in Connecticut in the 1700s owned a slave. This slave was eventually freed and went on to found a prominent family in CT/NY, which is why the genealogy is known. I’m sure a lot of people have unknown slave-owning ancestors in the past, because when it wasn’t associated with a large plantation, you could probably only find out with old copies of wills, etc.
I have to believe Affleck will respond to this. I’m sure there is much machination among his PR posse trying to figure out what he’ll say.
I watch all of Gates’ shows because they are well done and I’m a fan of genealogy and history. But I have mixed feelings about him. In his older shows he seemed slightly gotcha-smug when he revealed a guest’s slave-owning ancestry. Slavery was horrible and it needs to continue to be discussed that it never happens again but the descendants of slave-owners do not deserve any condemnation.
Why does he have to issue a statement?
How is this a scandal? A scandal is you’re caught cheating on your spouse with underage kids or you’re caught on tape snorting coke, shooting up heroin or you abuse animals. Is it stupid? Yes. A scandal? No.
Meh. Do we all need to apologize for the sins of our dead ancestors and living relatives? That would be a full time job. Ben is probably horrified and embarrassed by the information. He really doesn’t owe the public an apology.
I like that decision by Ben. It shows he isn’t proud of it. Unlike others.
*coughcumberbatchcough*
I can understand why he wouldnt want it to be revealed. He might think it will be really controversial and hurt his career…but…its something that he has zero control over. I mean unless you’re Azaelia Banks, I’m sure most people will still support him. Plus, its always easy to come out ahead of it and say “Wow, I just discovered this. I’m ashamed its a part of my family history” and move on.
And besides, Im sure if we dig deep enough there will be something ugly in all of backgrounds.
Covering it up shows him to be extremely controlling about his image and it presents him as someone who is obsessed with presenting himself in the best possible light no matter how false or unnecessary.
He has no hope of a political career. The democrats would never be stupid enough (I hope) to put forward a candidate who would tantrum in debates when the opposing candidate disagrees with him. The opposition would know exactly how to press his buttons and delight in saying politically incorrect things to incite him self destruct live on television.
I don’t think he has to issue an apology. He looks like a sneaky, controlling, idiot and has to live with that, which is much worst than everyone knowing that you are related to some long dead person that owned slaves.
Personally I am wait for Jon Hamm to say something about his psycho behavior in college story. His silence is the one that’s really damning.
He does have more stuff to cover up than this and his wife is a willing partner in that cover-up. But he’s the cheater, the gambler, etc. and this episode with PBS shows he has no qualms in trying to cover up stuff. He always looks so sleazy compared to the sterling Matt Damon (except for that time he dissed Obama). I don’t like Affleck as a man and would never vote for him for anything.
+1
The funny part is that there are probably far worse (and much more recent) things in Ben’s past that he doesn’t want the public to know about. Like a dead hooker or something. (The movies Godfather Part II and Very Bad Things made me think of that.)
“This speaks to his character.” Yes!
If a man intentionally omits facts from his heritage, then what else is he intentionally omitting from his award winning work on his beloved Eastern Congo Initiative?
Gee, I guess this is how the Afflecks discuss the injustices of slavery to their children – simply “edit” it out. Oh, these must be the wonderful Southern values Garner gives her children. This says a lot more about their family than their cute pap pics.
Look, this is not unusual. The longer he stays quiet, the worse he’s going to come across.
I barely know who my grandparents were, so I would hardly feel at all connected to any ancestor from the 1700s or early 1800s. Assuming he had anything to do with this (could have been a PR person’s decision), it sounds as though he just got bad advice. Usually people who delve into the family tree enjoy telling tales of the awful ancestors they uncover, makes it more interesting.
When that peculiar institution slavery was legal, people “owned” other people on a small scale as well as on the large scale usually dramatized in movies and books. Not all slaves worked on big plantations. So it’s hardly such a surprise that an ancestor might have been a slave holder if they were white, non-poor, and living in the appropriate time and place. Being rich was not a requirement. They also might have had white indentured servants, which was slavery with an expiration date and involved abuses as well, especially when children were involved. Wife beating was also legal, so I would expect some wife beaters could be in the mix as well. Children could be legally abused up until more recent times. The latter phenomena are actually related to slavery, because they also rest on the assumption that one group can legally have absolute power over another group (always bad news for humans).