On Tuesday night, Ben Affleck finally commented on the days-old controversy that he asked the PBS show Finding Your Roots to remove a segment referencing his ancestor who had owned slaves. Affleck framed it as a collaborative decision, similar to the way he would influence a director to edit scenes for a film. He failed to acknowledge showrunner Henry Louis Gates’s concerns over compromising journalistic integrity, and he dismissed the show as not “a news program.” He also made it clear that he did influence Gates to edit his ancestor, stating in part that he felt vulnerable and embarrassed. “The assumption is that they will never be dishonest but they will respect your willingness to participate and not look to include things you think would embarrass your family.”

There were some decent parts in Affleck’s statement in which he acknowledged that he shouldn’t have done that, but overall he went on a little too long and made it about him. He also worked to get people to understand his position instead of trying to convey an understanding of why this was a problem.

In a new comment to Facebook, Affleck changes his tune somewhat. He says that some sites framed it as “censorship” (we did that, as did Gates in his original emails to Sony head Michael Lynton) and that it wasn’t like that, it was just no big deal.

Thanks for the comments here. To clarify, because I see this story being framed as “censorship” on some sites, when I told Skip I was uneasy about the slave owner, he told me he had not included it in his preliminary cut because there wasn’t much detail – a name and no details, so he wasn’t going with it to begin with. He also told me they would do a book later with a more complete story, and I said I would be happy to participate and talk about the issues more broadly.

[From Facebook]

So in his original statement, Ben said this: “I lobbied [Gates, he calls him Skip] the same way I lobby directors about what takes of mine I think they should use.” Then in his follow up, he claims all he did was tell Gates he “was uneasy” and then Gates told him it didn’t matter because he had already removed that part. This is despite the fact that Affleck’s segment on Finding Your Roots was largely about race (see NPR’s coverage for more) and despite the fact that Gates’ emails to Lynton contradict this. Gates was incredibly concerned about being asked to censor the show, and not once did Affleck acknowledge this. PBS is conducting an internal investigation to ensure their editorial standards haven’t been compromised, and their statement says that “We have been moving forward deliberately yet swiftly to conduct this review.” Affleck must know this.

Affleck’s statements don’t add up. Either he lobbied for this change and it was a big deal to him because he felt embarrassed and vulnerable (his first statement) or he just told Gates he was “uneasy” and Gates told him he didn’t plan to include that information anyway. It’s possible that Gates got an email from Affleck, emailed Lynton, and then played it off like it was no biggie to remove that part and he meant to do it anyway. If that’s what happened why didn’t Affleck explain it that way in the first place? He could be telling the truth in both statements, they’re not necessarily contradictory, but he’s handled this all very poorly.

Oh and Affleck also posted another comment revealing his ancestor’s name. He said “Lots of people here have been asking who the guy was. His name was Benjamin Cole – lived in Georgia on my Mom’s side about six generations back.”