You might remember a story from a few months back about Ben Affleck misrepresenting his family history for a TV program.

It turns out a Harvard professor has been dragged into the fray.

The Daily Mail reported.

Harvard professor who covered up Ben Affleck’s slave roots could be dropped from PBS after he is slammed by broadcaster for ‘breaching standards’

The Harvard professor who covered up Ben Affleck’s slave-owning ancestors has been condemned for breaching a broadcaster’s standards and his future with PBS thrown into doubt.

The episode of Finding Your Roots in which Affleck had details about his slave ancestors edited out breached the PBS editorial standards, the network’s internal review has concluded.

Henry Louis Gates Jr, the host of the genealogy show, was guilty of allowing ‘improper influence’ to sway his judgement when he caved in to the Batman star’s request.

Gates also failed to tell his superiors who only heard about it when Daily Mail Online contacted them for comment whilst breaking the story, the review says.

In a blunt admission PBS said that it was postponing the airing of the third season of Finding Your Roots.

More damagingly it is refusing to commit to a fourth season because it does not have enough confidence in the production team.

A raft of new checks will be introduced including an extra fact checker – and an independent genealogist to verify all the show’s findings.

The ruling is hugely embarrassing for Gates, an Emmy Award-winning Harvard professor of African American Research – but he is not being fired.

PBS spokeswoman Anne Bentley told Daily Mail Online: ‘He and the co-producers were very much part of this internal review and he is aware of this new editorial rules that need to be put into place’.

Gates said in a statement: ‘I want to thank PBS for its thoughtful internal review. I sincerely regret not discussing my editing rationale with our partners at PBS and WNET and I apologize for putting PBS and its member stations in the position of having to defend the integrity of their programming. Throughout my many years of producing genealogy documentaries, I have always operated with rigorous ethical standards. Even so, we have been working with PBS and WETA to create new guidelines to increase transparency going forward.