HBO made it necessary for someone from the Obama side to speak up after the network shifted the blame of the exclusion of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson from the telecast of the inaugural concert. 

Presidential Inaugural Committee communications director Josh Earnest got to do the speaking (and, yes, I got a mild chuckle out of having a communications guy named “Earnest”): 

“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.”

An apology without an explanation. Better than nothing? Maybe, but they were rather pushed into action. If there was an “error in executing this plan”, the details of that error could be mentioned briefly and people would be more apt to accept the apology.