Slow news day, much?

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

So, yesterday during the broadcast of the final rounds of the U.S. Open golf tournament, NBC showed a clip of some children singing the Pledge of Allegiance. This little ditty of the Pledge apparently featured the words "under God" being edited out before broadcast, and an immediate firestorm of appalled rage ensued.

Here's the story. NBC was assailed with so many complaints, so fast, that they actually issued an on-air apology later in the broadcast. Quoth the CNN article:

The video montage showed historic golf footage, patriotic imagery, and landmarks from the nation's capital because this year's tournament was taking place at Congressional Country club just outside Washington. [...] "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."

Look, I'm an American Christian, too, and even in my most leftist days, when I watch things like Obama's inauguration and wonder whatever the heck happened to that church-state separation thing we had going, I see no harm in things like "In God We Trust" being stamped on our currency, or "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. But, is it really all that big a deal when a major network broadcasts a version of the Pledge without said reference to the divine? Before a golf tournament? Apart from middle- and upper-class white people, does anyone actually care about what they put in the broadcast of a golf tournament? Frankly, I find the whole "patriotic montage" thing silly; again, it's a golf tournament. It wasn't a presidential inauguration, an event related to a national holiday, a tribute to our fighting men and women, or something else of the like.

This is the same network that still shows "Days of Our Lives" every weekday, which has included such groan-inducing schlock high-class, well-written storylines as brainwashed people thinking they're priests, amnesiacs attempting incest, demonic possession, serial killers, mysterious islands with utterly stupid damned clever names housing kidnapped characters, and characters pretending they're in Gone With the Wind. I am assuming that many of the same people who eat up such awful tripe enthralling fiction and expert acting are the ones shrilly complaining to NBC about the Pledge.

So, is this another Sign of the Impending Downfall of America, when even broadcasts of golf tournaments can't dare edit out words in a unofficial pledge without fearing the wrath of millions of people who have naught better to do than watch golf during the middle of the day? (Granted, it was Sunday, but still....)