ABSOLUTELY INSUFFICIENT – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  A bizarre incident occurred on network TV over the weekend, and we should be demanding some answers.  NBC Sports opened a golf tournament with the Pledge of Allegiance, but edited out "under God."

Now, the issue before the house is not whether you think "under God" should have been inserted in the Pledge in 1954 – reasonable people can differ.  The issue is a network editing out the phrase and apparently thinking no one would notice.  NBC has apologized, but we are far from satisifed.  From Fox:

BETHESDA, Md. -- NBC issued an on-air apology Sunday for omitting the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance during its coverage of golf's U.S. Open.

The words were edited out of a clip of children reciting the oath -- a move immediately noted by viewers, who took to Twitter and various blogs to voice their anger, the Huffington Post reported.

In a statement during the broadcast, NBC commentator Dan Hicks said, "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."

COMMENT:  Oh, come on.  I always love that phrase, "...apologize to those of you who were offended..."  Apparently, NBC isn't apologizing to anyone else, or to the nation as a whole.  NBC should have said, "We apologize to the nation, and we promise a full internal investigation to examine how this happened, why, and how such outrageous actions can be prevented in the future.  We'll give you the results."

Yes, the Pledge is only words, but it has enormous symbolism.  How in the world could anyone at a major network change it?  Why?  What does this tell us about the culture in broadcast journalism?  And why didn't anyone at NBC notice?

I hope someone, like Fox News, gets on this and demands more from NBC.  From a small incident we can learn a great deal. 

June 20, 2011