Open coverage on NBC Sunday, the network aired a controversial, patriotic montage that showed children saying the Pledge of Allegiance. To the disgust of many of the viewers, NBC edited the words "under God" and "indivisible" in the first version and omitted "one nation" as well in the second version. Within hours, social media outlets were flooded with outraged viewers protesting against NBC's omission. NBC's announcer publicly apologized on-air just three hours after the montage aired, highlighting the large number of protests they received online. The announcer said the "feature was edited" and "not done to upset anyone" (Chavez). .
The host, Dan Hicks, read the following statement during the coverage: "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 (Busbee). .
NBC's Universal Sports issued a second apology from Chris McCloskey, the Vice President of communications, stating that a "decision was made by a small group of people to edit portions of the Pledge of Allegiance. This was a bad decision" (Marrapodi). .
The rendition sparked lots of controversy and even grabbed the attention of Senator Dan Coats (R-Ind.), who sent a letter to Comcast/NBC Universal President Stephen Burke expressing "serious concern" about NBC's decision (FOX Nation).
In his letter, Coats wrote, "I am disturbed with NBC's decision to modify the Pledge for this broadcast. I understand that NBC acknowledged its error at a later point in Sunday's broadcast, and has since stated that this action was a .