Washington (EWTN News) — The TV network NBC apologized for omitting the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance during its coverage leading up to the U.S. Open championship.
The June 19 program featured a group of children saying the pledge before the sports event at the Congressional Country Club, but the network edited out the words “under God” from the pledge twice.
Reacting to immediate criticism, NBC issued an on-air statement saying the intent was to include “a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship.”
“Regrettably, a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance that was in that feature was edited out,” network officials said. “It was not done to upset anyone, and we would like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it.”
The controversy comes as the Supreme Court ruled on June 13 against atheist activist Michael Newdow’s latest attempt to remove the words “under God” from the pledge.
In March, the Supreme Court also rejected Newdow’s appeal from a loss in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
In both cases, the nonprofit Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the global Catholic fraternal organization the Knights of Columbus intervened in the lawsuits to help school children who want to recite the pledge.
The Knights of Columbus led the effort to add the phrase “under God” to the pledge 55 years ago.
Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said on June 14, “The Knights of Columbus is proud to have played a major role in successfully defending the constitutionality of the words ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance.”
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The story has been covered that NBC edited out “under God” and that, therefore, there was some sort of political agenda behind it. When in fact, they edited out “under God, indivisible”. So, are we to also conclude that NBC is politically opposed to a united, indivisible country?
Rick noted, “. . . in fact, they edited out ‘under God, indivisible’. So, are we to also conclude that NBC is politically opposed to a united, indivisible country?”
I don’t know, Rick, when was the last time the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case involving a demand that the word “inivisible” from the Pledge. If you read the article a second time, carefully, Rick, you will come across the news that “the Supreme Court ruled on June 13 against atheist activist Michael Newdow’s latest attempt to remove the words ‘under God’ from the pledge.”
In light of this, it is reasonable to conclude that NBC was pandering to
persons who resent the mention of God in our pledge.
As for the word, “indivisible,” being eliminated, I would suggest that editor on this piece chose to eliminate these four syllables along with “under God” for technical reasons. Given that the NBC suits were determined that “Under God” was to be eliminated, children’s habit of reciting in a sing-song may have necessitated the removal of the subsequent few syllables to match the pitch of their voices in the following frames. Any competent editor would do this (a) to create a more seamless flow of sound and (b) to render the tampering with the segment less obvious.
NBC and their staff are a disgrace but they do as the president does ... Or as he does not ...salute our flag because of course it’s not his Flag
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