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NBC dumps 'under God' from Pledge at U.S. Open

Joe Kovacs

Outrage: 'I changed the channel, despite really wishing to watch history possibly being made'

NBC's opening of the U.S. Open Golf Championship today included two readings of the Pledge of Allegiance, but omitted the phrase "under God" both times.

The program commenced with children standing in a classroom setting, as they recited the "abbreviated" version of the Pledge, saying: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, with liberty and justice for all."

The real version of the pledge has the phrase "under God, indivisible" following "one nation."

NBC's version of the Pledge got even more abbreviated moments later during the same opening, as the children stated, "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, with liberty and justice for all."

The omission did not go unnoticed by viewers.

"These scumbags purposely left out 'one nation, under God' in the delivery of this montage by flashing away to another scene, in both cases the military," wrote WND reader Keith Hendrick. "There is no question these executives at NBC who hate God, and at the same time, hate America, pushed this message through. I presume this message will be taken as legitimate enough to call NBC out on this injustice, in NBC's never-ending objective of destroying America's principles."

Another viewer, Mark Sass, told WND, "I changed the channel, despite really wishing to watch history possibly being made, and am going to begin boycotting NBC and their advertisers, both nationally and locally."

NBC was apparently flooded with complaints, because later in the broadcast, announcer Dan Hicks apologized on behalf of the network, claiming the omission had no malicious intent.

Ironically, Hicks never specified that it was the words "under God" that were omitted, as he stated: "We began our coverage of this final round just about three hours ago. When we did, it was our intent to begin our coverage of this U.S. Open championship with a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship, held in our nation's capital for the third time. Regrettably, a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance that was in that feature was edited out. It was not done to upset anyone, and we'd like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it."

Radio host Rush Limbaugh, a well-known golfer himself, responded to the controversy by saying, "For [under God] not to show up on NBC, somebody had to take it out, which is an actual physical movement or decision."

He added, "I think the lesson here for NBC is if it was an accident, they ought to learn how much this really matters to people. I don't think they really know that."

June 19, 2011

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