( CNN ) Would you want a TV program about your family history to include details of a distant , long-deceased relative who had owned slaves ? Seriously , who in their right mind would want to be tarnished by the sins of an ancestor you had no connection to other than a remote bloodline ? I would n't , and neither did Ben Affleck , who lobbied producers of a PBS show , `` Finding Your Roots , '' to remove any reference to his great-great-great grandfather Benjamin Cole , a Georgia slave owner in the mid-1800 's , in an episode that looked at Affleck 's family history . ( Affleck revealed Cole 's name Wednesday night . ) Here 's the thing that might surprise many , given the tendency of the media to exploit any potentially scandalous material : The show 's producer , Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. , apparently acquiesced to Affleck 's request , because when the episode aired in October 2014 , there was no mention of the star 's slave-owning ancestor . Affleck 's attempt to alter the content of the program only publicly became known a few days ago after WikiLeaks released hacked emails revealing an exchange between Gates and Sony Pictures chief Michael Lynton . When Gates asked how he should respond to Affleck 's request to delete the material , Lynton responded , `` all things being equal , I would definitely take it out . '' And on Tuesday , Affleck , via Facebook , admitted that he had urged Gates to excise any reference to his slave-owning relative . Affleck explained , `` I did n't want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves . I was embarrassed . The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth . '' Now Gates has publicly denied that he made his decision about the content of the program based on Affleck 's request , but it seems likely that he did . After all , Affleck noted as much in his Facebook post , writing that Gates `` agreed with me on the slave owner but made other choices I disagreed with . '' And three other celebrities profiled on the series last season were shown to have been related to slave owners . So it 's unlikely that it was simply happenstance that it left out any reference to Affleck 's familial slave ownership connection . In any event , PBS has launched an internal review to determine if the show violated its own editorial standards . Whatever the results of the review , Affleck and Gates did the right thing . Let 's be clear : `` Finding Your Roots '' is not an investigative news show ; it 's an entertainment program . In fact , as Affleck noted , much of the material is provided directly by the celebrity being profiled . It 's not `` 60 Minutes '' but more in the nature of a sophisticated profile of celebrities , using their marquee names to attract viewers . There 's not even a hint that Affleck strong-armed the producers or made any type of threats against them if they included the information . In the emails between Gates and Lynton , which they presumably believed at the time were confidential and would remain so , there was no mention of undue pressure by Affleck . Instead , Gates simply noted that Affleck `` asked us to edit out something . '' After the emails were revealed , Gates issued a statement , saying , `` Ultimately , I maintain editorial control on all of my projects and , with my producers , decide what will make for the most compelling program . In the case of Mr. Affleck we focused on what we felt were the most interesting aspects of his ancestry -- including a Revolutionary War ancestor , a third great-grandfather who was an occult enthusiast , and his mother who marched for civil rights during the Freedom Summer of 1964 . '' My view would be different if Affleck had a history of uttering racist remarks or engaging in racist conduct . That would have made the information truly newsworthy . But instead we have a man known for championing progressive causes , which I 'm sure made him even more acutely sensitive that some on the right might possibly use this information against him in the future . Perhaps that 's what Affleck meant in his Facebook post when he wrote that this information made him feel `` vulnerable . '' Affleck has noted that he regrets asking PBS to not include information about his `` distant relative . '' That 's a nice gesture , but it was not needed . Affleck had every right to ask for the information about a long-deceased distant relative to be left out of the show . And PBS had the choice to include it or leave it out . I applaud PBS for doing the right thing at a time when media outlets rarely show any restraint on the lives of people in the public eye .
Ben Affleck admits he asked ` ` ` ` Finding Your Roots '' to avoid mentioning his slave - owning ancestor . ` ` believes the producers and the show were right to leave the detail out .