US Open 2011: NBC Draws Fire, Apologizes for Omitting "Under God"

The US Open begins with some controversy

Viewers will tolerate some mistakes, but other things they can't: Like messing with the Pledge of Allegiance.

NBC did just that at the start of today's US Open telecast. As the intro shows, a group of young kids are saying the pledge. What's missing, you ask? "Under God" and "indivisible." Later on you see the pledge again and this time you don't hear "one nation."

This prompted a firestorm on Twitter, and NBC released this statement:

"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 who were offended by it."

Rings pretty hollow. You can say you were being rushed and had time constraints all you want. Anyone with a brain knows there are editors who splice this stuff together and make sure nothing's off. So I have a hard time buying this was just an accident.

I mean, if they're in a time crunch, why not take out "for which it stands" or "to the flag"?

This was just tacky and showed poor taste. NBC has always been first-class when it comes to sports, whether you're talking about Sunday Night Football or going back to the days of its Saturday baseball broadcasts.

Spin this all you want, but this will be a huge black eye on the network.

Stay tuned to Bleacher Report for all things US Open of Golf related, and visit our Golf page for all the latest news.

-Trae Thompson

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