http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollyw...cks-slave-owning-ancestor-out-of-documentary/
The integrity and reputation of PBS could be damaged by the revelation that the network censored information about Ben Affleck’s slave-owning great-grandfather out of the actor’s segment on the television show Finding Your Roots, several media professors said Monday.
In an email exchange leaked by WikiLeaks, Finding Your Roots producer and host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. asked Sony CEO Michael Lynton for advice about a “megastar” who wanted to “edit out something about one of his ancestors – the fact that he owned slaves.”
Lynton advised Gates to proceed with caution, and that if anyone knew about the request then the network could not honor it. Gates appeared to understand the gravity of the censorship request, writing, “To do this would be a violation of PBS rules, actually, even for Batman,” and seemed to settle on a decision when he concluded the email exchange with: “Once we open the door to censorship, we lose control of the brand.”
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You have to wonder how this would have been handled if the celebrity had been, say, Ted Nugent or someone whose leanings are in the other direction. I'll bet the information would have remained intact, and probably even been made a centerpiece.
The integrity and reputation of PBS could be damaged by the revelation that the network censored information about Ben Affleck’s slave-owning great-grandfather out of the actor’s segment on the television show Finding Your Roots, several media professors said Monday.
In an email exchange leaked by WikiLeaks, Finding Your Roots producer and host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. asked Sony CEO Michael Lynton for advice about a “megastar” who wanted to “edit out something about one of his ancestors – the fact that he owned slaves.”
Lynton advised Gates to proceed with caution, and that if anyone knew about the request then the network could not honor it. Gates appeared to understand the gravity of the censorship request, writing, “To do this would be a violation of PBS rules, actually, even for Batman,” and seemed to settle on a decision when he concluded the email exchange with: “Once we open the door to censorship, we lose control of the brand.”
______________________________________________________________
You have to wonder how this would have been handled if the celebrity had been, say, Ted Nugent or someone whose leanings are in the other direction. I'll bet the information would have remained intact, and probably even been made a centerpiece.
