TV News Edits Inaugural Benediction

For starters, I missed President Obama's swearing in. I am sorry. You ask, "How can a journalism student knowingly miss history in the making?" My only defense is that journalism students get hungry at noon just like anybody else, and in any case, they had to redo the whole thing afterward. The importance of my inattention is that I also missed the benediction where Rev. Joseph Lowery said the words, "We ask you to help us work for that day...when white will embrace what is right," and that I would not hear those words until today from a group of super-stoked white people.

Of course, I watched all the coverage I could post-lunch, rotating through several news stations. They all had a clip of the benediction, but all the Rev. would say was "We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to give back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man."
"Cheers!" was what I thought at the time.

Tonight, I feel differently about the prayer (not offended, just sucker-punched), and it is because of the stations' censorship of events that I did not realize I was included in Rev. Lowery's iridescent blessing. With a sigh of relief came an accusation, and stations such as NBC and CNN thought that it was better for anything offensive to be omitted for the rest of the day. While I am flattered to be on the receiving end of racially sensitive reporting, I am upset that a journalist felt the need to distort a sentiment that an administrative review would allow.