Monday, December 17, 2007

60 Minutes

I missed the live airing of A-Rod on 60 Minutes last night, but I just finished watching the clips available at CBS.com and I've come away with a few impressions.

First, A-Rod is very very controlled. This isn't new. We all know that he is extraordinarily image conscious. He was deliberate in his answers and tried to remain focused throughout the interview.

Second, he denied using PEDs of any kind. I don't believe he did, but it's irrelevant at this point. We'll never know who did and who didn't, so any successful player is open to scrutiny. I choose to believe him. The disingenuous remarks, to me, were his denial of direct knowledge of any player's use of PEDs. He was very "blinky" throughout his answer, and while I don't expect him to sell anyone out or admit to being a silent enabler of drug abuse, I find it hard to believe that ANY player alive didn't know what was going on, or see something suspicious. These guys spend way too much time together.

Third, Katie Couric has to be the worst interviewer in the history of television. She looks and sounds like someone on mood enhancing drugs and she was completely overmatched in that interview. She clearly has no functional knowledge of baseball or sports in general and sounded like a dimwit trying to ask A-Rod about his swing. I'm biased because I think she's one of the most egregious examples of news as entertainment there is, and that's one of my pet causes. She's vapid, cotton candy and has no place in a serious conversation of any kind. I picture her sitting on the floor with a chimpanzee playing marbles and cooing about how well the chimp uses his opposable thumbs. Giggle.

I wish someone like Charlie Rose had conducted the interview. Couldn't they at least get Ed Bradley?

3 comments:

Dan Perlmutter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dan Perlmutter said...

Ed Bradley's dead Mike, but besides that ... you've been doing a great job!

Mike Plugh said...

Gag. Is Ed Bradley really dead??!! I was living in Japan and I must have missed that. He'd still do a better interview than Couric.