THE REV. AL SHARPTON was scheduled to appear on one of TV One's panels, but he wasn't there, and there was no explanation forthcoming from the folks at the network.

It isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened — the TV critics' press tour version of bait-and-switch. Which was definitely the impression that the network's CEO left when he failed to answer the question about where Sharpton was.

"I think Rev. Sharpton is in New York," Rodgers said.

Yes, but wasn't he supposed to be here? He was on the schedule until just a few hours before the session began.

"We had invited him to come, and he wasn't available," Rodgers said, clearing up nothing.

And when the subject came up again a short while later, Reid was more than a bit testy.

"If you don't mind, a very close friend of his, Rev. Timothy Wright, is fighting for his life," she said. "He was in a car accident where his wife died and his grandson died. And so Rev. Sharpton, who was planning to be here, had to change his plans at the last minute to be by the family's side."

A perfectly fine answer that we couldn't get from Rodgers a few minutes earlier.

He could have made the issue evaporate. We would have moved on.

We're not awful people. Well, not really awful people. Well, not all of us.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com