In an epic situation of shameful broadcasting bias, NBC on Sunday decided to cut the words "under God" from the reading of the Pledge of Allegiance that accompanied the beginning of its coverage of the U.S. Open Golf Championship.

In fact, this happened twice during the show's introduction (video follows courtesy Mark Finkelstein with partial transcript):

What alarmed viewers was this version of America's Pledge:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, with liberty and justice for all.

Seconds later, the Pledge was repeated with even more words omitted:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, with liberty and justice for all. 

(Source)

So, as expected, the majority of the tuned in had a huge WTF alert on why NBC would do something so insulting.  They blew up the switchboards and demanded an acknowledgement of the omission and an apology.  In true speaking "with your dollars" fashion, the incensed emotions and threat of backlash, NBC promptly issued an apology.

THE APOLOGY:

As Noel Sheppard reported earlier, in the show-opening feature of its coverage of the final round of the US Open golf championship today, NBC--twice--edited out the words "under God" from its clip of school children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Clearly many Americans were offended and let NBC know about it.  Because later in the broadcast, host Dan Hicks issued an apology on behalf of the network. But NBC simply compounded one omission with another.  The apology spoke of "a portion of the Pledge" being edited out--but never mentioned that the omitted words were "under God."

DAN HICKS: We began our coverage of this final round just about three hours ago. When we did, it was our intent to begin our coverage of this US Open championship wiht a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship, 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 who were offended by it.

(Source)

You see how easy it is to get them to bend when you cinch up the purse strings????