# "Small government" conservative goes after NBC for altering the Pledge of Allegiance. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 22, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483 "2011-06-22T20:36:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/61 "2011-06-23T15:47:19Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > Golf aired that day on NBC from 1:30 to 7:30 ET. Six hours of coverage. > > If they were so concerned about filling that massive block of time, perhaps they shouldn’t have shown the pledge at all, like I said before. You have yet to explain why any aired iteration of the Pledge matters a whit. How were you injured exactly? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/62 "2011-06-23T15:47:25Z")
I really don’t know why some of you are trying so desperately to defend a decision that NBC doesn’t even stand behind. And I have seen nothing threatening in the senator’s letter as it stands. If he takes it further, then perhaps intimidation comes into the picture. As it stands, no. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/63 "2011-06-23T15:49:48Z")
I’m asking you why you think it NEEDS to be defended. Why do you care? How were you harmed? ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/64 "2011-06-23T15:50:57Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > I really don’t know why some of you are trying so desperately to defend a decision that NBC doesn’t even stand behind. And I have seen nothing threatening in the senator’s letter as it stands. If he takes it further, then perhaps intimidation comes into the picture. As it stands, no. I really don’t know why you are so desperately trying to defend a decision that doesn’t make any sense. Are you personally one of the people that was upset because the Pledge of Allegiance got edited for a TV program, and if not, why are you taking up the flag (hah) for all of the morons who were? And the senator’s letter doesn’t have to be “threatening” for it to be intensely and unfathomably stupid, which in fact it is. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/65 "2011-06-23T15:51:27Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > You have yet to explain why any iteration of the Pledge matters a whit. I don’t need to explain that. It wasn’t my decision to include the Pledge as part of a nationwide broadcast. > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > How were you injured exactly? I wasn’t. NBC was when they screwed the thing up. That’s on them now. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/66 "2011-06-23T15:53:28Z")
It wasn’t a screw-up. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/67 "2011-06-23T15:53:55Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Incidentally, nobody has less respect for the “indivisible” part than the right wing media. Then they should have left it in there then, right? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/68 "2011-06-23T15:56:33Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > I don’t need to explain that You keep talking about what NBC “should” have done. I’m asking you to exlain why they “should” have done anything. > [@](#): > > I wasn’t. So you admit that nobody had any reason to complain? > [@](#): > > NBC was when they screwed the thing up. That’s on them now. No, it’s on the butthurt, offenderati retards who complained about something that was nothing. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/69 "2011-06-23T15:57:53Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > No, you are wrong. Even if we concede the “under God” part, that still leaves the fact that NBC also edited out “indivisible” which nobody can explain. > > [Link.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/post/nbcs-pledge-of-allegiance-omission-draws-criticism/2011/06/20/AGxBYscH_blog.html) Yeah, uh, doesn’t that actually _support_ the idea that it wasn’t intentional revisionism by the liberal atheist cabal? Unless the concept of “divisibility” is now part and parcel of the ant-religious movement, and I just haven’t received the memo on my infernal fax machine… ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/70 "2011-06-23T16:00:20Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > Then they should have left it in there then, right? I don’t think they “should” have done anything. I am utterly indifferent to any omissions of any words in the Pledge by any network. I am not under any delusion that I’m being harmed by other people’s omission of words from a fascist, nationalist chant. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/71 "2011-06-23T16:02:17Z")
I learned the pledge of allegiance before the words “under god” were added. It took me a long time to remember to insert those words on occasions when I was required to speak the pledge. I often forgot to include those magical mystical words, words that were inserted in spite of the wishes of the person who first wrote the damn thing. I guess I’m doomed to hell for my omissions of those words; I kind of hoped I’d go to hell for something a little more significant. The whole damned issue is a tempest in a teapot. I wish NBC would ask the guy if he doesn’t have anything better to do. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/72 "2011-06-23T16:20:18Z")
I won’t speak to NBCs decision. That’s on them. But I can sure as hell speak to why the apologized for it. Coats is a fucking United States Senator. He can, at any time, completely fuck them over through the power he wields. Whether it’s using his position to speak against them to fucking with the FCC about their right to continue broadcasting on their frequencies for stations they own (and screwing with affiliates if he’s really mad) he can, quite simply, make their corporate lives hell. When he demanded it they gave it. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/73 "2011-06-23T16:20:51Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > I won’t speak to NBCs decision. That’s on them. But I can sure as hell speak to why the apologized for it. > > Coats is a fucking United States Senator. He can, at any time, completely fuck them over through the power he wields. Whether it’s using his position to speak against them to fucking with the FCC about their right to continue broadcasting on their frequencies for stations they own (and screwing with affiliates if he’s really mad) he can, quite simply, make their corporate lives hell. When he demanded it they gave it. Nooo, certainly not. They wouldn’t have apologized if they weren’t factually, objectively wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/74 "2011-06-23T16:39:10Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > Uh, no. > > You do not need to say the pledge at all. True. > [@](#): > > It is not required - indeed, this case law came down even before “under God” was added. You can sit the whole thing out. Also true. Note, however, that people often do things they’d rather not because they feel ostracized or attacked when they do sit out. There’s even a name for it: peer pressure. > [@](#): > > But if you as a broadcast network decide to show it, you ought to show the whole thing. Why? What makes the pledge of allegiance so special that I cannot edit it like most things on tv? > [@](#): > > That isn’t terribly hard to understand. Apparently it is. But I have faith, someday, you’ll get it. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/75 "2011-06-23T16:40:52Z")
I support NBC and its liberalizing. The more liberal its broadcasts are, the closer they are to reality 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/76 "2011-06-23T16:42:06Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > I won’t speak to NBCs decision. That’s on them. But I can sure as hell speak to why the apologized for it. > > Coats is a fucking United States Senator. He can, at any time, completely fuck them over through the power he wields. Whether it’s using his position to speak against them to fucking with the FCC about their right to continue broadcasting on their frequencies for stations they own (and screwing with affiliates if he’s really mad) he can, quite simply, make their corporate lives hell. When he demanded it they gave it. Not to dispute what you have said about Senator Coats’ ability to screw with NBC, it must be noted that he sent the letter on the 21st, some two days after the broadcast in question. The outcry from the public was rather immediate, and NBC issued an on-air apology later in the U.S. Open coverage on the 19th. So they didn’t apologize because of his letter. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/77 "2011-06-23T16:43:13Z")
If you give a flying fuck over someone editing out the words “Under God”, then perhaps you’re not quite ready to assume the responsibilities of citizenship. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/78 "2011-06-23T17:15:43Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > Golf aired that day on NBC from 1:30 to 7:30 ET. Six hours of coverage. > > If they were so concerned about filling that massive block of time, perhaps they shouldn’t have shown the pledge at all, like I said before. NBC acts in their own self interest. They have no obligation to further some right wing nut job’s agenda or to keep up with nationalist policy. Can you really not understand that? ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/79 "2011-06-23T17:26:19Z")
I have secretly left out the “under God” from my pledges since 10th grade, so I was happy to learn that NBC and I are on the same page. Was really, really hoping NBC was making some sort of statement. I do find it hard to believe they just happened to leave out those words and no others but, if they say so, OK. Disappointing but OK. It would be great if they would just come on out and say they did it on purpose or a rogue producer/writer did it, something, but I understand they can’t rock the Christian boat. Their response to Congressman Coats should be to edit his name from any and all NBC coverage, including this story, forever. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483/80 "2011-06-23T17:26:21Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > NBC acts in their own self interest. They have no obligation to further some right wing nut job’s agenda or to keep up with nationalist policy. > > Can you really not understand that? How was it in their self interest to anger so many people? All I have said is that if they were showing the pledge they should have showed the whole pledge - if you watch the thing on YouTube it is clear that time was not a constraint. If they didn’t want to do this they should have done something else and not shown the pledge. Nationalist policy? Again, it wasn’t my call to include the pledge, flags, and soldiers. NBC did this. If they flubbed it, it’s on them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-government-conservative-goes-after-nbc-for-altering-the-pledge-of-allegiance/586483.md?page=5)