Last night a spokesperson for HBO blamed the Obama Presidential Inauguration Committee (PIC) for not airing the inauguration concert invocation from openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson. Today the PIC is pointing back at HBO. Their message to John Aravois at AmericaBlog:
“We had always intended and planned for Rt. Rev. Robinson's invocation to be included in the televised portion of yesterday's program. We regret the error in executing this plan – but are gratified that hundreds of thousands of people who gathered on the mall heard his eloquent prayer for our nation that was a fitting start to our event.”
So it was HBO's "error in execution"? And it should be pointed out the "hundreds of thousands of people" didn't hear Robinson due to a sound system "malfunction."
UPDATE: AfterElton got a further statement from HBO: "It was not an HBO omission. We merely televised the show beginning at 2:30pm. Had the PIC told us upfront that this was to be part of the telecast, it would have been." According to AfterElton, HBO has given the PIC permission to post Robinson's speech on their website.