Affleck demanded PBS program hide his slave-owning ancestor

Affleck demanded PBS program hide his slave-owning ancestor

I linked to both of these stories to demonstrate the difference between proper and biased reporting. The right-wing nutbag sites generally claimed that Affleck "demanded" to have his slave-owning ancestor expunged. It's clear from the actual SONY e-mails that the proper verb would be "asked." As far as I can see, he never tried to exercise any muscle in the process.

Does that mean that PBS told the truth when they said that their final decision was based on the fact that other stories in his ancestry were more compelling narratives? Of course not. It's just the usual crap that people spew when they get caught red-handed. "Oh, no, we didn't drop it because Affleck asked (wink-wink, nudge-nudge). We found better stories. Who cares about a family's progression from slave-holders to ultra-knee-jerk-lefties in a few generations? That story says nothing about the nature of America or humanity in general."

Yeah, PBS and the producers did a lot of weaseling around, but ...

The fact remains that Affleck didn't seem to "demand" anything. (He didn't have to, did he? I suppose he assumed they had his back, and he was right.)