UPDATE: A&E Cancels KKK Documentary Series

UPDATE: A&E just announced its plans to cancel Escaping the KKK, a highly controversial documentary series that purported to examine the plight of people seeking to leave the Ku Klux Klan. According to Variety, producers with the show had made financial payments to some of the subjects involved with the program. "While we stand behind the intent of the series and the seriousness of the content, these payments are a direct violation of A&E's policies and practices for a documentary," A&E released in a prepared statement just hours before the start of Christmas Eve.

Previously, the cable network channel had promised "core partners" such as the Anti-Defamation League and Color of Change that "no payment was made to hate group members," but with the revelation that that was a lie and that "cash payments" were made in order to gain access to the KKK, Escaping the KKK, as a show has now had its plugged pulled and will not air anytime soon. A spokesperson talking to Variety said that they were unable and unsure to say if producers would try and ship Escaping the KKK to another network, but we hope that this program is now DOA from here on out.

Original story below.

The cancellation marks what would seem to be the final step of a gradual backtracking from the effort by the network, which is part of A+E Television, a media company owned jointly by Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Corp. The program has generated adverse publicity since the network unveiled it, despite what executives had hoped would be become a powerful look at hate-groups in the United States.

Just yesterday, the network changed the name of the eight-part documentary series, which had originally been titled, “Generation KKK.” The announcement of the new program sparked outrage on social-media networks, where actors such as Wendell Pierce and Ellen Pompeo, railed against the effort, though it was not clear whether any of the people criticizing the series had seen any o fit for themselves.

A&E will begin airing a documentary series on the Ku Klux Klan at the start of the new year.

Titled Generation KKK, the series explores the intricacies of the KKK and the family lives of its highest ranking members (including figures such as Steven Howard, the Imperial Wizard in Mississippi, and Chris Buckley, a Grand Knighthawk in Georgia), and the ways in which their roles often affects their families (specifically their children).

Although the filmmakers of Generation KKK have said that the series will not be used to promote the beliefs and views of the historically controversial hate group, it is already receiving backlash considering the timeliness of it being announced.

First came reports earlier this year of the group leaving leaflets throughout the Deep South and the Northeast, in an attempt at "trying to reshape itself for a new era." According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, KKK membership doubled in number of local chapters from 2014 to 2015.

Then there was the endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump by an official KKK newspaper, which although his campaign criticized, did not stop the organization from celebrating his win in places such as North Carolina.

Lastly, there is also the rise of the white nationalist political movement known as the alt-right, with Richard Spencerserving as the face of the group.

Still, Rob Sharenow, A&E's general manager, hopes to be able to create a balance by bringing anti-hate activists into the fold (most of which were former white supremacists) and show Klansmen the error of their ways (or, at the very least, not involve their children).

"We certainly didn’t want the show to be seen as a platform for the views of the KKK," Sharenow told the New YorkTimes. "The only political agenda is that we really do stand against hate."

Generation KKK will premiere on January 10.