A-Rod’s Performance Enhances Cable News Nets

On a day when President Barack Obama is set to sign a $787 billion stimulus into law, several national networks including CNN, Fox News and MSNBC went live with Alex Rodriguez’s press conference, the first chance for any media member not named Peter Gammons to quiz the player on his admitted use of a banned substance.

And it was a great programming decision, as the Yankees’ slugger put on one of the best performances I have seen in a long time.

Seriously, with all due respect to Mickey Rourke and Heath Ledger’s possible big day this Sunday, any Oscar nominee could take an acting lesson from this guy.

Dodging questions like he was driving on a Los Angeles freeway during this recent rainstorm, Rodriguez refused to acknowledge he had cheated or to talk in specifics about the person (his cousin, he claimed) who had administered the injections, or to answer a direct question about whether his homerun total is tainted.

He lied to Katie Couric and then apologized.  He trashed Sports Illustrated’s Selena Roberts, and then apologized.  So obviously the guy has no credibility, as he thinks he can do and say what he pleases, and then say I’m sorry.

So on the day the President will sign into law what – politics aside – many hope will help us turn around this flailing economy, it was smart for all the networks that chose to carry A-Rod’s press conference to do so.  It was just a great performance.

Who said scripted television was dead?