HBO Defends Its If-The-South-Won Series ‘Confederate’ But Acknowledges It ‘Screwed Up’ The Announcement

“The concept, especially the revelation that a modern form slavery will be depicted, spurred a furious backlash on social media and in essays from high-profile writers like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay,” and HBO’s CEO acknowledged that the idea deserved more explanation than a three-paragraph press release. (Oddly, no one seems to be pointing out HBO’s tactical error in initially spotlighting producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, who created Game of Thrones and are white, rather than executive producers and lead writers Malcolm Spellman and Nichelle Tramble Spellman, who are African-American.)