By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Even though NBC apologized for omitting the words “under God” and “indivisible” from the Pledge of Allegiance during Sunday’s U.S. Open, the company is under ever-increasing pressure to punish those responsible for the omission.
CNSNews.com is reporting that the fury over the omission began on social media just minutes after the program ran a montage that included children reciting the pledge. The words “under God” and “indivisible” were left out twice. Tweets calling for a boycott of NBC began almost immediately, and the network received such a backlash of criticism that they were forced to issue an apology.
“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,” announcer Dan Hicks told viewers.
“Regrettable, 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,” Hicks added.
But that’s not good enough for some. Dan Gainor, vice president of Business & Culture at the Media Research Center (MRC), called the omission “brazenly deliberate” and said the MRC planned to send letters to religious leaders nationwide, “calling on them to hold NBC’s feet to the fire and demand the network fire those responsible.”
“NBC has unquestionably committed an act of religious bigotry designed to offend Christians. Removing ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance in a piece they aired yesterday during the U.S. Open – not once, but twice – was absolutely not accidental. It was brazenly deliberate,” Gainor said in a statement.
“NBC’s pathetic apology did nothing but compound the offense by refusing to admit what they had done. Either NBC identifies and fires the employee or employees responsible for this act or the network is guilty of deliberately giving aid and comfort to religious bigots,” Gainor added.
Meanwhile, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which focuses on constitutional law, is sending a letter of protest to NBC and the USGA.
“The fact is by trying to pay tribute to our nation and its heritage, NBC crossed a troubling line and offended millions of Americans by cutting the phrase ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance,” Jordan Sekulow, director of Policy and International Relations at the ACLJ, said in a statement.
“The phrase ‘under God’ is not a throw-away line, an afterthought. It’s been a critical part of the Pledge for more than half a century – a time-honored tradition. NBC admits to editing out the phrase and its brief apology hours later was too little, too late,” Sekulow added.
“NBC and the USGA spent a great deal of time and money chronicling the history and heritage of America’s most prestigious golf event. You’d think they’d get it – that America’s history and heritage must be chronicled correctly – and that includes keeping the phrase – ‘under God’ – in the Pledge of Allegiance.”
Persons who wish to send a message to NBC about the inappropriateness of their actions can do so at this special location on the ACLJ website.
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