Monday, June 20, 2011

NBC, What were you thinking?

Watching some of the US Open broadcast on NBC yesterday, I heard this apology from NBC Sports Announcer Dan Hicks:
"Earlier 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 that were offended by it."

Since I didn't tune in until mid-broadcast, I didn't think much about it, until this morning when I came across the footage prompting the apology.  Now I'm not one to get all riled up about stuff like this, but the omission of the 'under God' statement from the pledge seems so blatant that those responsible for airing this video deserve a good slap in the back of the head.  What were you thinking?  Did you not think anyone would notice?  Were you actually looking for more boycotts?  'Regrettably a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance[just the most emotionally contested portion, mind you] was edited out.'  Even if the edit was unintentional, which I have a hard time believing, how could you be so careless to not foresee an outcry, or did you prepare your apology in advance?  "It was not done to upset anyone"?  Really?  You didn't think anyone would care?   Absolutely amazing.  I am not so much offended by the video as I am floored by the empty-headedness of those who aired it.   

1 comment:

  1. I read that article this morning and thought the same...really, you didn't think anyone would care?! I had to wonder if the elite sector of our society is that out of touch with the rest of the country or if they had hoped to cause a stir...I can't decide which!

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