First, A piece of rail broke near Tenleytown shortly after opening then while single tracking a train in the single track zone had a door problem. (http://wamu.org/news/12/01/26/red_line_service_restored_after_cracked_rail) This zonked the Red Line until midday.
Then, around 11:00 PM WMATA suffered a communications meltdown that froze the entire system for nearly an hour. WMATA's website was down as well. (http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-on-foot/2012/01/a-power-failure-meltdown-fully-crippled-the-d-c-metro-thursday-night-14372.html) Granted it was late at night but it took hours for anyone to contact the press.
I know that DC is a very cynical city and the unique structure of WMATA (plus the contempt Richmond has for NoVA/Annapolis has for MoCo and PG) plays some role in this but the structure issue goes only so far.