from the what-was-once-private-is-now-public dept.
PBS has postponed a third season of "Finding Your Roots" following an investigation into the editorial process of the pop genealogy TV program. The show is hosted by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (the same professor who was invited to a "beer summit" by President Obama in 2009), and tracks the family history of celebrities and other public figures using historical documents as well as Y-chromosome DNA, mitochondrial DNA, and autosomal DNA analyses.
The show's editorial process came under scrutiny after an email exchange between Gates and a Sony executive was discovered within the Sony emails and documents posted by WikiLeaks. Gates asked for advice on how to deal with actor Ben Affleck, who was pressuring producers to omit the fact that one of his ancestors owned slaves:
"We've never had anyone ever try to censor or edit what we found," Mr. Gates wrote to a Sony executive, Michael Lynton, in July 2014. Mr. Gates added that this would violate PBS rules, and "once we open the door to censorship, we lose control of the brand."
When the episode was broadcast in October, it did not mention the slave-owning ancestor. After the emails were posted to WikiLeaks, Mr. Gates said that producers had discovered more interesting ancestors from Mr. Affleck's family, including a relative from the Revolutionary War and an occult enthusiast. Mr. Affleck said in April that he was "embarrassed" when he discovered that he was related to a slave owner. "I didn't want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves," Mr. Affleck wrote on Facebook.
In the investigation, PBS said that producers violated network standards by letting Mr. Affleck have "improper influence" and "by failing to inform PBS or WNET of Mr. Affleck's efforts to affect program content." The network said that before the third season of "Finding Your Roots" can broadcast, the show needs to make some staffing changes, including the addition of a fact checker and an "independent genealogist" to review the show's contents. PBS also said that it had not made a decision about whether to commit to a fourth season of the show.
In other recent WikiLeaks news, the Saudi govt. is telling citizens to ignore "fabricated documents", such as those describing diplomatic immunity fueling Bahrain booze runs in the "dry" country, and the belief that Iran shipped centrifuges to Sudan in 2012.
Wired declares that "WikiLeaks Is Back" following Espionnage Élysée. French President François Hollande has held an emergency meeting to discuss claims that the U.S. spied on French Presidents from 2006 to 2012.
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WikiLeaks has published "The Sony Archives," a searchable database containing 30,287 documents and 173,132 emails leaked from Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). The WikiLeaks press release portrays the archive as newsworthy and in the public interest:
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange said: "This archive shows the inner workings of an influential multinational corporation. It is newsworthy and at the centre of a geo-political conflict. It belongs in the public domain. WikiLeaks will ensure it stays there."
Sony is a member of the MPAA and a strong lobbyist on issues around internet policy, piracy, trade agreements and copyright issues. The emails show the back and forth on lobbying and political efforts, not only with the MPAA but with politicians directly. In November 2013 WikiLeaks published a secret draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) IP Chapter. The Sony Archives show SPE's internal reactions, including discussing the impact with Michael Froman, the US Trade Representative. It also references the case against Megaupload and the extradition of its founder Kim DotCom from New Zealand as part of SPE's war on piracy.
The connections and alignments between Sony Pictures Entertainment and the US Democratic Party are detailed through the archives, including SPE's CEO Lynton attending dinner with President Obama at Martha's Vineyard and Sony employees being part of fundraising dinners for the Democratic Party. There are emails setting up a collective within the corporation to get around the 5,000 USD limit on corporate campaign donations to give 50,000 USD to get the Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo elected as "Thanks to Governor Cuomo, we have a great production incentive environment in NY and a strong piracy advocate that’s actually done more than talk about our problems."
Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton is on the board of trustees of RAND Corporation, an organisation specialising in research and development for the United States military and intelligence sector. The Sony Archives show the flow of contacts and information between these two major US industries, whether it is RAND wanting to invite George Clooney and Kevin Spacey to events, or Lynton offering contact to Valerie Jarrett (a close advisor to Obama) or RAND desiring a partnership with IMAX for digital archiving. With this close tie to the military-industrial complex it is no surprise that Sony reached out to RAND for advice regarding its North Korea film The Interview. RAND provided an analyst specialised in North Korea and suggested Sony reach out to the State Department and the NSA regarding North Korea's complaints about the upcoming film. The Sony documents also show Sony being in possession of a brochure for an NSA-evaluated online cloud security set-up called INTEGRITY.
Additional coverage at BBC and LA Times. Sony has condemned the document dump:
"The attackers used the dissemination of stolen information to try to harm SPE and its employees, and now WikiLeaks regrettably is assisting them in that effort," said a Sony Pictures spokesperson in a statement. "We vehemently disagree with WikiLeaks' assertion that this material belongs in the public domain and will continue to fight for the safety, security, and privacy of our company and its more than 6,000 employees."
Assange's Stay In Embassy Has Cost British Taxpayers $17 Million
Harriet Alexander reports in The Telegraph that Julian Assange's three-year stay in the Ecuadorian embassy has cost British taxpayers more than $17 million for around the clock. police surveillance at the embassy. The Metropolitan Police refused to discuss how many policemen were deployed to the embassy, but they did confirm the cost. The Met said the figure included $10.3m of what they termed "opportunity costs" – police officer pay costs that would be incurred in normal duties – and $4.3m of additional costs such as police overtime. A further $1.7m was put down to "indirect costs" such as administration. Assange challenged his extradition order to Sweden through the courts, but when his appeals failed he absconded and sought refuge inside the embassy of Ecuador – a country whose president has spoken publicly of his support for the 43-year-old computer hacker. Ecuador granted him asylum in August 2012, but as soon as he sets foot outside the building Britain will deport him to Sweden. He has been indoors ever since.
The Swedish director of public prosecutions, Marianne Ny, has grown impatient. In March she said that she would consent, reluctantly, to interview Assange inside the embassy – because the statute of limitations for some of the alleged crimes runs out in August. "Now that time is of the essence, I have viewed it therefore necessary to accept such deficiencies to the investigation and likewise take the risk that the interview does not move the case forward, particularly as there are no other measures on offer without Assange being present in Sweden."
WikiLeaks Publishes New Sony Documents and Saudi Cables
WikiLeaks has added 276,394 new Sony documents to its online searchable database. The site has also uploaded 61,205 documents and cables leaked from the Saudi Arabia Foreign Ministry:
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday June 26 2015, @03:21AM
I attended junior high and high school with michael dwayne crawford. He wasnt real happy to meet me despite that my people lived in pennsylvania until 1900. While not actually Amish the residents of crawford township are much like the amish.
You might find your genealogy on archive.org. on my mothers side is the 1880 edition of the history of jaffrey new hampshire. my aunt has my grandmother's 1920s edition, when she was a handwriting teacher.
I expect Im in the current edition but havent looked into it yet.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Touché) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday June 26 2015, @03:29AM
I find it disturbing that so many businesses regard their brands as so important. A while ago I stumbled across some website which boasted that the company owned one hundred brands. they didnt say much about what products or services were involved or whether they were of any real value to anyone else.
Ive got a brand somewhere, dad found it while cleaning grandma's basement. we figure it was from The Flying J ranch.
Its about the beef not the scar you burn into their skin.
Next time youre at the grocery store compare some tortilla chips. Hispanic people make them by frying sliced tortillas. doritos brand tortilla chips are full of artificial colors so each chip will precisely match a pantone color swatch while at the same time leading you to believe they are seasoned with hot peppers.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by mtrycz on Friday June 26 2015, @05:56PM
A brand is much more than just a logo, or the way products are prepared. It's the mental image in people's heads about you.
Check this old-ish article out, for example; it changed the way I think about it
https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/86/israeli-brand.html [adbusters.org]
(tl; dr: Isralei Foreign Ministry spends millions in PR and marketing of the "Israel" brand)
Note: Adbusters is I blog I somewhat dislike, but they're well informed and competent at reverse-engeneering marketing.
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by stormwyrm on Friday June 26 2015, @04:21AM
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday June 26 2015, @03:53PM
> British Royals ... can trace their ancestry down to John, Richard III, Edward I
Well, some of them can... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-harry/11315109/Prince-Harry-was-fathered-by-James-Hewitt-new-play-claims.html [telegraph.co.uk]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @01:06AM
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday June 26 2015, @05:21AM
I mean, Sony and Ben Affleck is given more prominence than Espionnage Élysée and the Saudi Cables.
Inquiring minds want to know: is this intended to trivialize the serious matters as soon as possible?
(why the hell should I care about Sony and Ben-what's-his-name more?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 26 2015, @05:30AM
Think of it as a free bonus. There was already a Sony II/Saudi cables story anyway.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Funny) by VortexCortex on Friday June 26 2015, @05:53AM
should I care about Sony and Ben-what's-his-name
__(.)< AFLACK!
\___)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by forkazoo on Friday June 26 2015, @09:25AM
Nobody who has spent a week in Bahrain is at all surprised that it's considered Saudi's liquor store. Every weekend, Bahraini roads are full of cars with Saudi license plates as the rich and powerful pop out of the Kingdom to enjoy the finer things in life. The fact that outside diplomats who aren't even giving official lip service in support of the booze ban would be among the many people bringing drinks back in will similarly shock nobody. The only interesting thing is that these diplomats are so ham-fisted that they couldn't figure out how to hand over some cash and sweet talk their way past the border without ever being put on record. That's pretty much exactly the sort of thing diplomats are theoretically hired to do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 26 2015, @12:43PM
The only interesting thing is that these diplomats are so ham-fisted that they couldn't figure out how to hand over some cash and sweet talk their way past the border without ever being put on record.
Why bother? It is the same reason the TSA can't catch 49 out of 50 test runs - when there are no consequences for screwing up, it is human nature not to waste the effort.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 26 2015, @02:21PM
Go back far enough, and we all probably have ancestors who owned slaves. No, I'm not talking a thousand years, I'm talking about the Americas, specifically the United States. We just had a similar sub-discussion under the Charleston church shootings title.
https://whitewraithe.wordpress.com/the-black-slave-owners-of-the-south/ [wordpress.com]
I'm about certain that none of my ancestors has owned a slave, at least not in the past 500 years or so. But - I can't be absolutely certain, either. Bond servants, yes, slaves no, as far as I know.
Funny thing though - my grandchildren may not be able to say that. THEY will have another whole family geneology to check out.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Friday June 26 2015, @04:41PM
Well my family didn't own slaves but then one side was German/Sweds who settled in the midwest about 10 years before the civil war and the other side lived mostly in New York state from the early 1800s. Granted the ones from New York were racist as hell with my grandmother there believing that we fought on the wrong side in WWII but still they didn't own slaves. It is an odd thing later in life to realize just how racist someone you loved was as you gain a better mastery of the language. When I was little I had no idea what Roma was, or what grandma was talking about when she mentioned the mongrel races and mud people. If she were still alive she would probably have disowned me for marrying a woman of Hungarian Jewish decent.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 26 2015, @05:42PM
Mongrel races, and mud people. I read a line, "You call yourself the master race. We wear your skin. Who's the master now?" Nice set of images here . . .
http://www.vice.com/read/portraits-of-new-zealands-mighty-mongrel-mob [vice.com]
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 26 2015, @02:25PM
Shocking news about Ben Affleck! Booze smuggling into a dry country! Hard hitting news. Watch out TMZ!!
I can't wait to see what they've got to say about the royal babies or what's up with Justin Bieber.
(Score: 1) by Flyingmoose on Friday June 26 2015, @02:28PM
WikiLeaks announced a while ago (a few years maybe?) that they had a trove of documents from one of the big banks. I don't like the government or Sony much, but I feel like the banks were really the ones to blame for recession we're just now coming out of.
So why is it that they released all of this other stuff but nothing about the banks? Did they pay off WikiLeaks or something? Out of everything WikiLeaks obtained, I was most looking forward to hearing about the results of the bank documents, especially since the leaker went to the trouble and personal risk to get them in the first place.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tibman on Friday June 26 2015, @04:38PM
Here's some speculation written five years ago that is probably still relevant: http://www.cnbc.com/id/42762811 [cnbc.com]
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @10:34PM
this 'news' is about 2 years past it's sell by date.