NBC apology necessary?

I think it's perfectly reasonable to argue the phrase shouldn't be included in the Pledge and should never have been added to it.

But, if you're going to use it, you use it as it currently reads.

And, maybe it was one low level staffer who did it, but I'd imagine others saw/heard it before it aired. Did they not catch it?

It's such an unforced error -- completely unnecessary.

 

Are you illiterate? Or too dense to know the difference between sanctioned and mandated?

And to AQB: It's not irrelevant at all. If people are getting all up in arms about something whose existence is antithetical to the whole concept of the nation, I think it's entirely relevant to point out that folly.

And let's be clear: Bellamy wrote the original pledge in 1892, and other people changed HIS words -- and those changes later got the imprimatur of Congress -- after he'd died. Forgive me for not considering the revision to be sacrosanct.

 

I question why they needed to show the Pledge, but if you're going to do it, don't edit it.

I agree that it was likely some editor down the line for reasons of his own.

 

Answers to your questions: Yes. No.

 

I thought the whole thing was a bit strange. I understand it's the U.S. Open, but the overtly patriotic opening seemed a little out of place on a day when international players were running away with the tournament.

 

To indirectly quote Ricky Ricardo:

"NBC... you got some splainin' to do."

Yes. NBC has to answer why. Red state or blue, left or right, that's part of the Pledge.

 

But you have explained it yourself. You're trying to get U.S. viewers to stay tuned despite the foreign dominance and no Tiger. Seeing the parent network of MSNBC opting for a little Sunday afternoon flag waving makes sense in that context.

 

Some verrrrrry brief backgrounding: IIRC, Ike (utterly gung-ho about it) was the primary motivator behind Congress' putting UG into the POA, and IIRC, it transpired early in Ike's first term ('54).

Red Scare-time.

 

And yet, nobody is complaining that they also cut "indivisible."

 

Rick Perry, come to the white courtesy phone . . .

 

Well, slick, since nobody has to say it who the hell cares?