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Interesting - no comments about NBC's Pledge of Allegiance edit?

K

KERCAlum

I have seen many comments (nearly all of them negative) in other locations regarding NBC's selective editing of the childrens' recital of the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of Sunday's coverage of the U. S. Open golf tournament. To recap: They cut out the words "under God" in the first recitation, and cut out the phrase "under God, indivisible" in the second. Both times they added sound and video of military personnel in the gap. NBC later apologized (the first time, on air during the tournament - the second time last night in a press release), but the negative comments keep coming.

I am somewhat surprised to see a lack of comments in this message board (although I haven't looked through all the boards at R-I - perhaps they're in a different location). I know there are folks out there who feel strongly about the industry in which they work, the way it's perceived by the general public, and the credibility (or lack of same) it carries. I'm not trying to fan the flames, but I am curious as to why nobody seems to have commented as of yet. Perhaps everything's been said in other forums and locations that needs to be said. But, as I said, I'm simply curious as to the lack of commentary.
 
Really not much to comment on. They did it, apparently the switchboard got absolutely
bombarded, they apologized before the show went off the air and they've been backpedaling
ever since. Show's over, move along.

If there is a story here it's the fact that there are actually enough people watching
golf on television on a Sunday afternoon to crash the NBC switchboard.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
If there is a story here it's the fact that there are actually enough people watching
golf on television on a Sunday afternoon to crash the NBC switchboard.
Click to expand...

;D ;D ;D
 
I'll bite. This is the same NBC Universal that showed the character Oscar on "The Office" not saying the "under God" part when Acting Manager Dwight required all the employees to say the pledge at the beginning of the day. The producers said it was not a political statement by them, but a statement about the character, who is portrayed as being on the cutting edge of society and wisdom.

I will say this, and it might not be appreciated. But just saying "under God" does not mean you really mean it. If most people in our country truly trusted God, we would not be in the sorry shape we are in! My opinion. You may not agree, and that is your choice and you are entitled to your own opinion.

Not a fan, however, of editing it out. It was put in the pledge in the 50s, and in my opinion, until congress takes it out, it should be presented correctly and completely.

And just so we keep this on TV stuff and don't veer too far into the taboo subjects of religion and politics, I would rather hear a good, meaty, croaking bullfrog than Johnny Miller! I wish CBS with Nantz, Faldo, Fehrety, and the others covered all of the majors! And Chris Berman calling golf in any form, especially a major, should be considered not just wrong, but a crime that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent allowable! :)
 
Preacherdude said:
And Chris Berman calling golf in any form, especially a major, should be considered not just wrong, but a crime that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent allowable! :)
Click to expand...

Berman, John Madden, and Dick Vitale would make a great golf broadcast team:

Berman: "Mickelson hits the ball...baaaackbackbackbackbackbackback..."
Madden: "BOOM! A hole in one!"
Vitale: "A dipsy-doo-holeinonearoo! Phil Mickelson is awesome, bay-bee!"

;D
 
And you'll probably get Berman on the next major--the British
Open on ESPN.

I haven't seen the ratings but I suspect that, even without Tiger,
the U.S. Open drew well on Sunday, given Rory McIlroy's dominance;
16-under just isn't supposed to happen at a U.S. Open and that in
itself was the story. But there was also the very remote chance that
he would blow it as he did on Sunday at Augusta; luckily for him he had
a large-enough lead going into Sunday at Congressional to eliminate that
chance. And he broke about every record there is for scoring at a U.S. Open.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that we saw the emergence of the next
dominant player, but with so many talented young golfers don't misunderstand
me and think I'm anointing him.
 
KeithE4 said:
Preacherdude said:
And Chris Berman calling golf in any form, especially a major, should be considered not just wrong, but a crime that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent allowable! :)
Click to expand...

Berman, John Madden, and Dick Vitale would make a great golf broadcast team:

Berman: "Mickelson hits the ball...baaaackbackbackbackbackbackback..."
Madden: "BOOM! A hole in one!"
Vitale: "A dipsy-doo-holeinonearoo! Phil Mickelson is awesome, bay-bee!"

;D
Click to expand...

What if Feherty did play-by-play or color analysis alongside Berman? That'd be fun to watch!
 
...the words "under God" were not in the Pledge when Francis Bellamy wrote it; in fact, his 1892 original read "I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all." Bellamy had himself been a Baptist minister, and the addition of "under God" wasn't even brought up until decades after his death. NBC has plenty of reasons to apologise, but I'm not sure this is one of them...
 
Ultimajock said:
...the words "under God" were not in the Pledge when Francis Bellamy wrote it; in fact, his 1892 original read "I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all." Bellamy had himself been a Baptist minister, and the addition of "under God" wasn't even brought up until decades after his death. NBC has plenty of reasons to apologise, but I'm not sure this is one of them...
Click to expand...
I don't think their motive in using the Pledge was historical exposition of the Pledge or its original writing. The original author really and his motive or his standing has nothing to do with this.

It was done for an audience on tv in 2011.
Since it was changed in 1954, and that's the current version we all go by, and that's what the schoolchildren said, that's the one they should have gone with, and not edited it.
Otherwise, just go back to the 1780s and pretend like there wasn't a Pledge at all. Stick some other footage on there.
 
quadraphonic said:
I don't think their motive in using the Pledge was historical exposition of the Pledge or its original writing. The original author really and his motive or his standing has nothing to do with this.

It was done for an audience on tv in 2011.
Since it was changed in 1954, and that's the current version we all go by, and that's what the schoolchildren said, that's the one they should have gone with, and not edited it.
Otherwise, just go back to the 1780s and pretend like there wasn't a Pledge at all. Stick some other footage on there.
Click to expand...

Agreed. NBC went to all the trouble of editing out (it wasn't a government-run network so I won't say censoring out) the "under God" phrase. The move was deliberate, the network obviously thought or hoped it would get away with it, or it hoped to find out how many out there actually were viewing that network. In any case, it was stupid.
 
But why would a large, very conservative corporation like NBC Universal/Comcast intentionally edit the Pledge of Allegiance? When I was growing up in the 70's, there were certain RELIGIOUS groups that didn't allow their children to say the Pledge and others that told their kids not to say the "Under God" part.

I'm not sure who decided to edit the montage. Maybe a rogue MSNBC editor who was filling in? But, seriously, I don't even think MSNBC would be against the "Pledge of Allegiance".
 
I'm getting really tired of the ignorant assumption that NBC is some left-leaning corporation because MSNBC has a few lefty pundits in the evening hours. NBC (prior to Comcast ownership) made a conscious decision to counter-program Fox News by hiring liberals as commentators. From what I understand, it has worked, and their evening ratings are higher than CNN. Success is its own reward.

Again - does anybody watch CNBC? Most of the political views expressed on CNBC are conservative. That's not surprising considering that it's a business network, I guess. CNBC Commentators like Larry Kudlow would fit in just fine at Fox News or Fox Business.

I think viewers should assume that the businessmen that run Comcast and NBC are as conservative as most business leaders are, and not assume there was some sinister left-wing plot to underrmine the Pledge of Allegiance.
 
I don't think anyone is accusing NBC of a "sinister plot." But clearly, someone at NBC or the Golf Channel had an agenda. If they didn't, they wouldn't have edited it out!
 
Ultimajock said:
...the words "under God" were not in the Pledge when Francis Bellamy wrote it; in fact, his 1892 original read "I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all." Bellamy had himself been a Baptist minister, and the addition of "under God" wasn't even brought up until decades after his death. NBC has plenty of reasons to apologise, but I'm not sure this is one of them...
Click to expand...

You are correct. The phrase "under God" was added during the Red Scare of the early 1950's.
It sort of made the Pledge into a de-facto Loyalty Oath (since a Godless Communist would clearly
never say those words)
 
"I pledge alleigance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation (pause) indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." That's how I always said it in school, despite the looks of horror on some of my peers' faces when I'd omit the compulsory "under *" part.

Nothing wrong with that. I don't think I'm any less an athiest than I would have ended up had I left the "under *" part in!
 
FreddyE1977 said:
Ultimajock said:
...the words "under God" were not in the Pledge when Francis Bellamy wrote it; in fact, his 1892 original read "I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all." Bellamy had himself been a Baptist minister, and the addition of "under God" wasn't even brought up until decades after his death. NBC has plenty of reasons to apologise, but I'm not sure this is one of them...
Click to expand...

You are correct. The phrase "under God" was added during the Red Scare of the early 1950's.
It sort of made the Pledge into a de-facto Loyalty Oath (since a Godless Communist would clearly
never say those words)
Click to expand...
It's apparently correct, and this fact has been used by many people on the internet (some have even said Bellamy was a Socialist and other 'facts'), but it doesn't really have anything to do with the topic at hand: the removal of them from this US Open intro.
Just because the 1892 original was changed in 1954 does not change the fact that "under God, indivisible" is in the current agreed-upon verbage.

As for what Lkeller said...
A very large, conservative organization like NBC/Comcast didn't edit the intro. I don't think you could legitimately blame the whole organization for Sunday's 'mistake.' Whoever is the editor for the intro edited the original. It happened on Sunday, and it was in something that the NBC Sports Dept and PGA probably had more control of than anyone else, so it probably didn't involve Standards & Practices or five other NBC departments that might otherwise have been involved. It's not that the "large organization" would never be involved, but in this case they probably never were.
 
Darth_vader said:
"I pledge alleigance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation (pause) indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." That's how I always said it in school, despite the looks of horror on some of my peers' faces when I'd omit the compulsory "under *" part.

Nothing wrong with that. I don't think I'm any less an athiest than I would have ended up had I left the "under *" part in!
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong with that either (except you better get right!! ;D ), lots of people do it that way,
but if NBC had taped you doing that, then edited in "under my beloved God, indivisible, with liberty and Microsoft products for all" then you'd probably be perturbed. :)
 
FreddyE1977 said:
If there is a story here it's the fact that there are actually enough people watching golf on television on a Sunday afternoon to crash the NBC switchboard.
Click to expand...

I bet it probably broke the record of listeners who crashed the NBC switchboard the night Howard Stern did a "practice" show on WNBC radio in New York...

"WNBC, please hold..." ::)
 
DToTheJ said:
I bet it probably broke the record of listeners who crashed the NBC switchboard the night Howard Stern did a "practice" show on WNBC radio in New York...

"WNBC, please hold..." ::)
Click to expand...

That was one on my favorite scenes in that movie along with the scene with all the people in suits reading the list of words he couldn't say on the air.


Back to the topic at hand. First off I don't get The Pledge of Allegiance thing. At most sporting events someone or some group performs the National Anthem, not the Pledge. And secondly I'm surprised there were enough people watching who actually cared. Golf = ZZZZZZZZZZ.
 
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