Eric Bacovic at the delightfully detail-oriented Language Log went through and found that Falwell's "apologies" for blaming 9/11 on gays, feminists, the ACLU, PFAW, and others aren't actually, well, apologies. Here's one of the half dozen he takes apart.

Falwell told CNN: "I would never blame any human being except the terrorists, and if I left that impression with gays or lesbians or anyone else, I apologize."

Sure, the words "I apologize" are there, but let's examine this a little more closely. If it's true that he "would never blame any human being except the terrorists" for the attacks of September 11, then how are we to interpret the pointing-of-the-finger that he clearly articulated on September 13? Even putting this incongruency aside, there are several obvious ways in which this is not an apology in the relevant sense. For one, Falwell might only be apologizing for leaving an "impression" ("if" one was even left!), but not for the comments themselves. Or, Falwell might not really believe that the people his comments laid blame on are "human beings". Or, Falwell might believe that the people his comments laid blame on are also members of the group "the terrorists".

Or, somewhat more complicatedly, we might ask what the phrase "that impression" refers to. Of course we're supposed to think that it refers to "the impression that Falwell would blame a human being other than the terrorists". However, it could also refer to "the impression that Falwell would never blame any human being except the terrorists", which corresponds directly with what Falwell actually says in the immediately preceding clause (a prototypical way to resolve the referent of a phrase like "that X"). Under this construal, Falwell would be apologizing for leaving the impression that he would never blame anyone but the terrorists, which is certainly not the impression that his comments left, so he's really not apologizing for anything!