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Really? NBC Cuts ‘Under God’ From Pledge of Allegiance, Later Apologizes

Jun 20, 2011  •  Post A Comment

Updated to include some readers comments on June 20, 2011 at 9:30 a.m. PT.

NBC aired the "Pledge of Allegiance" during its introduction to coverage of the final round of the U.S. Open golf tournament on Sunday, June 19, 2011, cutting out the words "under God," the Washington Post reports. The network later aired an apology, the story says.

Below is the video of the "Pledge" as NBC aired it.

Here’s the on-air apology by Dan Hicks, as reported in the Post article:“We began our coverage of this final round just about three hours ago and when we did it was our intent to begin the coverage of this U.S. Open Championship with a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship being 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.”

Here’s the video. As some of our readers have commented, below, NBC also excluded the word “indivisible and "one nation" the second time at the end (but not the first time).

20 Comments

  1. it doesn’t omit the words “on nation”. they’re clearly in the video.

  2. This video does not exclude “one nation” the first time around… only the second time at the end.

  3. errrrr…”one nation”, not “on nation”. but, you get the point. either way, it’s in the package.

  4. Simple mistake. NBC knows that you cannot mess with America’s belief in the supernatural.

  5. They actually played the sound of the children reciting the pledge twice editing out “under God” both times and “one nation” only the second time.
    It was their intent to “… captured the patriotism of our national championship” by editing out key words twice? Right, NBC. It was your intent to change the pledge of allegiance and hope the new version caught on.
    Shame on you.

  6. Even as a practicing agnostic, I find this to be a shamefully gutless act on the part of NBC.
    First, it defies imagination to say that the omission of “under God” was unintentional. The only other remotely plausible defense is that whoever prepared this segment was a product (victim?) of public school system indoctrination. So NBC, which is it really?
    Second, it was particularly gutless for NBC not to explicitly note the specifics of its “error” in its apology. But clearly, the network just couldn’t bring themselves to utter those two words — “under God.”
    Whether you like it or not, the Pledge of Allegiance, by law, includes the words “under God.” Of course, there’s no legal penalty for excluding those words if you choose to do so, but when you do in a very public and ostentatious way, you ought to have the courage of your convictions to acknowledge your decision and defend it.
    Stupid and cowardly. That pretty much sums up the NBC Television Network in 2011.

  7. well, someone managed to get the “new version” that included “under god” to catch on once upon a time, so you never know!
    i’m a little tired of people pretending like this is the pledge, has always been the pledge and any changes to it are blahblahblah anti-god communism.

  8. Actually, what was deleted were “under God” and “indivisible.”

  9. Hey, it wasn’t done to “upset anyone.” Clearly an accident. NBC could have inadvertently cut out any two words from its broadcast…like, say, “Rory McIlroy.” How can anyone not believe them?

  10. NBC is pathetic.
    They cant program a network and now this.
    Perhaps we need to Edit out COMAST from out homes????

  11. They never would have done this before Comcast. Comcast clearly has an agenda.

  12. Maybe the kids said “invisible” and NBC wanted to cut that. Or maybe NBC was going back to the original pleadge before the 1948 addition of “under God”.

  13. NBC has no right nor authority to alter the pledge. It doesn’t matter which lines they choose to delete. They don’t have the right. Period.
    In 1954 when the phrase “under God” was added by an act of Congress (yes I remember), McCarthyism was running rampant and there was a real threat of communism. The phrase was added to the pledge to make a statement to the world that the United States was in no way associated with communism.
    Those who think it’s just an unneeded phrase have no clue of their own Country’s history.

  14. Watch the entire clip. During the piece the pledge is said TWICE. The first time they omit “under God, indivisible” and the second time the kids say it straight thru and they edit out the words “one nation, under God, indivisible”.
    Shame on you NBC. Absolutely no excuse or explanation is acceptable.

  15. This doesn’t surprise me at all from a network that is in the pocket of liberals. NBC knew this was gong to happen and had their ‘aplology’ prepared to go out before the video was aired. The apology is hollow and unacceptable. NBC and other ‘networks’ have no problem at all with offending moderates and conservatives as long as the liberals are satisfied.

  16. Sorry, Carol, but there has never been a “real threat” of Communism in this country. It was fear-mongering at its finest, and I’m astounded to find that conservatives have managed somehow to bring it back in 2011. I really thought we had learned a lesson.

  17. I propose we add the following, “one nation, under the Flying Spaghetti Monster, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.” Hell, it’s as real and honest as the other imaginary crap that idiots have been adding to give them political advantage since this country began.

  18. You’re absolutly right. Lets bring everything back to the basics of our country… Let’s take about blacks and womens rights as well, because that wasn’t in the original constitution.

  19. At the time it was being touted it was considered a real threat. Hindsight is 20/20.

  20. If this were 1951 they wouldn’t have noticed because “Under God” wasn’t put in until 1952. Still, the network shouldn’t have messed up, I have no problem with it in there BUT, it wasn’t originally.

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