Why was Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson kept off "We Are One"?

FINAL UPDATE 5 PM: HBO and Team Obama both doing make-goods! HBO will add the Robinson invocation to the replay of "We Are One" that will be broadcast to everyone on the Mall in Washington as they gather for the inauguration tomorrow. HBO confirms that the invocation will be added to ALL future telecasts of "We Are One" ... except tonight's because it's just too late to get it in.

UPDATE 1:55 PM CT: Team Obama is very sorry ... Presidential Inaugural Committee spokesman Josh Earnest issued this statement: "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."

I understand from a different source that this is not over. That the country may yet get to hear this simple, yet uncompromising prayer from Bishop Robinson. For now it's on YouTube (see below).

UPDATE 1:11 PM CT: Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson just addressed the issue on NPR's Talk of the Nation. He said he had been in interviews all morning and no one -- certainly not Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC -- mentioned the snub. "I know very little about it," said Robinson before telling host Neal Conan how he learned the news: "I had a delightful day meeting all the other participants in the program. ... A little later in the morning I happened to see a schedule," and it showed him giving the invocation at 2:25 and HBO cameras going live at 2:30 p.m.

Robinson said he had "no idea" why it was scheduled this way but postulated, "The fact of the matter is HBO is an entertainment station and perhaps an executive at HBO thought, 'Well, who would possibly be interested in a prayer? People are tuning in to see Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder.'" As you will read below, HBO officials made it clear that they had nothing to do with the scheduling. Also, a caller to "Talk of the Nation" called in to confirm that NPR did not air the invocation, either.

AUDIO: I talked with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow about the Robinson situation this afternoon.

UPDATED with audio, clarification from HBO, revised text of prayer plus video below.

Like me, you probably enjoyed the heck out of "We Are One," the first of several Barack Obama love-ins scheduled for the next few days during this extraordinary Inaugural Week in Washington. I've already tweeted my top 3 highlights.

(Actually, a lot of readers couldn't get it, despite promises that they could. HBO said it was offering "We Are One" free to cable and satellite systems. But in Kansas City, the largest cable provider, Time Warner, only passed along the free program to subscribers with digital cable boxes. If you missed it, it's online right now at HBO.com.)

Later, though, I realized something was missing from the two-hour celebration: the opening invocation, delivered by the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire. Supposedly Robinson was tapped for the job weeks and weeks ago, but the announcement was only made last Monday, long after Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor who pushed Prop. 8 in California and considers banning gay marriage more important than banning torture, was chosen to say the invocation at Obama's swearing-in.

Mrs. TVB said I was making up Robinson's appearance at "We Are One," because she re-watched the HBO special later that night and confirmed, no bishop, no prayer, at the beginning of the program.

However, as you can clearly see above, Robinson did read an opening prayer just moments before HBO's telecast began.

Nor did Robinson's picture find its way into NPR's gallery of images from the concert. Admittedly, the news division did not cover the event -- NPR Music did -- but the website certainly is the domain of NPR News. A search of Getty Images, NYTimes.com and WaPo slide shows turned up nothing. In short, I found no visual evidence that an invocation was ever said.

Suddenly, Barack Obama's minister friends aren't news?

AUDIO: Chip Franklin and I discussed the Robinson snub at the beginning of the day on KOGO Radio in San Diego.

Wait, it gets worse: Turns out half the crowd that had gathered around the Lincoln Memorial and could see Bishop Robinson give his prayer couldn't hear him. "A malfunction in at least one massive speaker tower on the south side of the memorial left tightly-packed crowds on pins and needles chanting thunderously, 'We can't hear. We can't hear,'" reported a blogger at NYTimes.com.

UPDATE: I have edited the original version of Robinson's prayer to reflect what he actually said, as recorded in the YouTube above (note the three strikeouts):

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will...

Bless us with tears - tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless this nation with anger - anger at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort - at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience - and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility - open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance - replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity - remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years. Inspire him with Lincoln's reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for ALL people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words. We will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters' childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we're asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand - that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.

On the whole, though, Robinson's prayer was milder than what Bono had to say on stage.

As I see it, the Obama campaign has three options when the outcry (which has already started) comes to a boil later today:

**1. Claim it was a technical glitch, jumping on the Times blog item.** This would not only be a cowardly route, but it would be quickly disproven by one of several possibly gay executives at HBO or a viewer who could point out that the show began precisely and glitch-free at 2:30 p.m. ET.

UPDATE: Option 1 is off the table. An HBO spokesperson told TVB, "The PIC (Presidential Inaugural Committee)made the decision to put Bishop Robinson's invocation in the pre-show."

2. Come clean and admit that they never intended for Robinson to be seen on national TV. Which would mean admitting that Obama cooked up an extremely cynical ploy to pacify gays -- and straights like me who support gay marriage -- with a press release. Well, it failed. Perhaps Team Obama will claim it had no idea Robinson would not be seen giving the invocation. But then what does that say of Team Obama's vaunted preparation, planning, and chesslike working of all the angles?

3. Admit they screwed up and should've included Robinson on camera. If HBO had -- for some reason -- objected to having a gay bishop welcome all of America to "We Are One," then the invocation could have been pushed until after the entry of the presidential entourage. Well, it would not be the first time Team Obama had underestimated a controversial clergyman ... or the second. (How many presidents have gotten into hot water over their ministers three times before they even took the oath of office??)(

Whatever excuse the Obama people choose, exactly zero Americans saw Bishop Robinson on TV welcoming America to a day celebrating a president who is supposedly, to quote Colin Powell, a transformational figure.

And 150 million people will see Rick Warren do the same thing on Tuesday.

Some transformation.

For its part, NPR has some 'splainin' to do as well. I've put in a request to its ombudsman.