Register

    PBS To Bring “Finding Your Roots” Back For Season 3 After Affleck Controversy

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1724 Views
    In this March 26, 2015 file photo, actor Ben Affleck testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Senate State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs subcommittee hearing on diplomacy, development and national. security. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

    By Lynn Elber, Television Writer

    BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) --

    "Finding Your Roots" will return for season three, but whether the celebrity genealogy series that buried an uncomfortable fact about Ben Affleck's ancestor continues after that remains in doubt, PBS' chief executive said.

    PBS conducted a "very thorough investigation" and is working with the show's producers to ensure that its content is accurate, PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger told TV critics Saturday. The third season has yet to be scheduled.

    The public TV service launched a review after it was reported that Affleck requested the program not reveal his ancestor's slave-holding history in a 2014 episode. The Associated Press examined historical documents and found that Affleck's great-great-great-grandfather owned 24 slaves.

    Affleck's request came to light last spring in hacked Sony emails published online by whistleblower site WikiLeaks.

    PBS' review found that co-producers violated standards by allowing improper influence on the show's editorial process and failed to inform PBS or then-producing station WNET New York of Affleck's efforts to affect the program's content. Changes were made, including adding another researcher and an independent genealogist.

    Series host and executive producer Henry Louis Gates Jr. has issued an apology, saying he regretted forcing PBS to defend the integrity of its programming.

    WETA in Washington, D.C., took over as the public TV producing station before the issue came to light, Kerger said.

    In a Facebook posting in April, Affleck said he was "embarrassed" for a TV show about his family to include a slave owner. The award-winning "Good Will Hunting" and "Argo" actor and filmmaker added, among other comments, that "Finding Your Roots" isn't a news program.

    "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," Affleck said in the post.

    PBS hasn't been tarnished by what occurred, Kerger said during the Q&A session, and it reinforced the importance of applying stringent standards to all its programs.

    PBS is taking time to weigh what occurred with "Finding Your Roots" to ensure that there was a clear understanding of what happened and what oversight needed to be added, Kerger said.

    "But we want to be fair and not punitive," she said, adding she hopes that the series will continue.

    Category:News
    Tags:Ben AffleckFinding Your RootsPBS



    A Closer Look At Proposed Measures Designed To Curb Google’s Search Monopoly

    Thursday, November 21, 2024

    U.S. regulators are proposing aggressive measures to restore competition to the online search market after a federal judge ruled Google maintained an illegal monopoly for the last decade.

    The sweeping set of recommendations filed late Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice could radically alter Google's business, including possibly spinning off the Chrome web browser and syndicating its search data to competitors. Even if the courts adopt the blueprint, Google isn't likely to make any significant changes until 2026 at the earliest, because of the legal system's slow-moving wheels.

    Here's what it all means:

    What is the Justice Department's goal?
    Federal prosecutors are cracking down on Google in a case originally filed during near the end of then-President Donald Trump's first term. Officials say the main goal of these proposals is to get Google to stop leveraging its dominant search engine to illegally squelch competition and stifle innovation.

    "The playing field is not level because of Google's conduct, and Google's quality reflects the ill-gotten gains of an advantage illegally acquired," the Justice Department asserted in its recommendations. "The remedy must close this gap and deprive Google of these advantages."

    Not surprisingly, Google sees things much differently. The Justice Department's "wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court's decision," Kent Walker, Google's chief legal officer, asserted in a blog post. "It would break a range of Google products — even beyond search — that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives."

    It's still possible that the Justice Department could ease off on its attempts to break up Google, especially if President-elect Donald Trump... Read More

    MySHOOT Profiles


    Add A Comment