On Thursday it was Matt Lauer, the longtime host of the “Today” show, expressing “sorrow and regret for the pain I have caused,” the day after NBC News fired him over allegations of sexual misconduct.

Three days earlier Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, issued his third apology since a radio broadcaster accused him of forcibly kissing her and groping her breasts. Before that it was Louis C.K., the ribald comedian accused of serially masturbating in front of colleagues, whose 493-word statement did not include the word “sorry.” Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, outright denied that he groped teenaged girls, calling the allegations “dirty politics.”

The powerful men felled by sexual misconduct allegations over the past two months have had a range of responses (check out our video roundup here). Below, four New York Times journalists — Jessica Bennett, our new gender editor; Claire Cain Miller, who writes about gender in the workplace for The Upshot; Amanda Taub, co-author of The Interpreter column and newsletter; and Choire Sicha, our Styles editor — dissect five of these statements, analyzing both what is there and what might be missing.