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Presidential Inauguration Committee says invocation was supposed to be broadcast. Might it be tomorrow? Monday, 01/19/09
After Elton

I'm also hearing that Robinson's invocation might be broadcast tomorrow on the jumbotron screens placed around the mall for the inauguration ceremony. That would be a smart gesture by PIC and would go some ways toward making up for this.

PIC's statement doesn't exactly come out and say the whole thing is their fault, but it does seem to verify HBO's comments yesterday that they had nothing to do with Robinson's (pictured, right) exclusion from the broadcast. The network was in touch with us today and again reiterated this by saying, "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."

HBO has also given PIC permission to post Rev. Robinson's prayer on their website, but we're waiting for word when that will happen.

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HBO says they aren't to blame for not including Gene Robinson in concert special Sunday, 01/18/09
After Elton

Openly gay bishop Gene Robinson delivered the opening prayer before the start of the concert, but the prayer was not included as part of HBO's broadcast.

Contacted Sunday night by AfterElton.com concerning the exclusion of Robinson's prayer, HBO said via email, "The producer of the concert has said that the Presidential Inaugural Committee made the decision to keep the invocation as part of the pre-show."

Uncertain as to whether or not that meant that HBO was contractually prevented from airing the pre-show, we followed up, but none of the spokespeople available Sunday night could answer that question with absolute certainty.

However, it does seem that the network's position is that they had nothing to do with the decision.

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