“See. What did I just warn you about?"
Those words came over the phone in reaction to NBC Sports purposely removing the words "Under God" from a children's recital of the Pledge of Allegiance just before the start of the U.S. Open this past Sunday.
A few weeks before NBC decided to take a politically correct scalpel to the Pledge of Allegiance to apparently appease those who hate our nation, I had a lengthy discussion with a PGA touring professional.
Once he found out I was a conservative columnist and author, the PGA pro let loose on the state of the game in general but directing most of his criticism toward The Golf Channel and NBC.
"If you promise to keep my name out of this, you can print anything and everything I say," the pro said. "Tim Finchem, the commissioner of our tour, is as politically correct as they come and used to work for Jimmy Carter. He's a huge part of the problem, but I don't need him trying to track me down to make my life miserable. I still have a family to feed."
I promised.
"Professional golfers," he continued, "tend to be conservative by nature. Not all. It's getting to be a more diverse sport by the day, which is great for the game. But by and large, a majority of golfers still believe in traditional values, mom, apple pie, and that the United States is the hope of the world.
"We are far from perfect, as evidenced by Tiger Woods and others. We make mistakes, and we are human. Many on the tour are spoiled rich kids who don't have a clue about the world around them and only think of themselves. But they are in the minority now as well.
"I will speak for myself here. As a conservative, one of the things that has most bothered me is The Golf Channel partnering with ultraliberal NBC. CNBC is dominated by the liberal agenda, MSNBC is the liberal agenda and the NBC-controlled Weather Channel is driven by the religion of global warming and believes in smearing all who don't bow down to the 'settled science' of global warming. And now The Golf Channel is being big-footed by those with a liberal agenda, and no one seems to care.
"So now professional golf, where at least a majority of the U.S. players still believe in traditional values, is falling under the same control of the far left much like the entertainment world, the mainstream media and our colleges and universities. It's a disgrace, but many golfers are simply afraid to speak up.
"Most of the sports reporters at the major papers and networks are already liberal.
"Now The Golf Channel is using the NBC-employed or -approved likes of Jimmy Roberts, John Feinstein or Tim Rosaforte — nonathletes that many of us believe have a liberal agenda or openly espouse their liberal beliefs or allegiance to the Democratic party."
I asked the professional golfer what the solution was.
"I don't really know," he replied. "All I know is that it's getting much worse. NBC has their politically correct "Green Week" theme that they force upon CNBC, The Weather Channel, MSNBC and the other outlets they own. Now they are forcing that 'destroy the economy to green the planet' mentality on The Golf Channel.
"Something has to be done. Aren't there any conservatives who want to buy these networks? Aren't there any rich conservatives who are sick of their kids and grandchildren being indoctrinated with a far-left ideology and are willing to do something about it?"
It seems not.
Maybe NBC's editing God out of the Pledge of Allegiance will force one or two of these wealthy conservatives to rethink their hands-off approach to the media.
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