TARNISHED

PBS Pulls Show Over Ben Affleck’s Edits

“Finding Your Roots” postponed.

PBS has postponed the upcoming season of Finding Your Roots in the wake of revelations that actor Ben Affleck forced producers to edit out details about one of his ancestors who allegedly owned slaves, according to a network statement released Wednesday. The show’s third season will not air until PBS makes staffing changes, including hiring a fact checker. Finding Your Roots, which is hosted by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., examines family histories of celebrities and public figures. The discovery of Affleck’s omission came to light amid the WikiLeaks release of hacked Sony emails. However, as The Daily Beast reported, according to Georgia tax records, his ancestor may have not owned slaves at all. Regardless, a PBS investigation found that producers violated network standards by allowing Affleck to have “improper influence.”