By Mondo Times editors
Boulder Colorado USA
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 8:09am

NBC Sports Apologizes for Axing "Under God"

-- The network began its broadcast of the U.S. Open golf tournament with a pre-recorded introduction featuring an audio track of children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, twice. The segment omitted the terms "under God" and "indivisible" during both readings, as well as "one nation" the second time around.

Later in the broadcast, NBC announcer Dan Hicks read from a statement, but didn't mention the specific words that were omitted: "It was our intent to begin our coverage of this U.S. Open championship with a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship being here 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."

The term "under God" was not part of the original Pledge of Allegiance, which was composed in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister. "Under God" was added in 1954 during the administration of President Eisenhower.

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