The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz broke the story today that President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent and a practicing neurosurgeon. Kurtz reported that Gupta has told Obama’s team that he wants the job and that the final vetting process is under way. Kurtz provides the following background on Gupta:
The Michigan-born son of Indian and Pakistani parents, Gupta has always been drawn to health policy. He was a White House fellow in the late 1990s, writing speeches and crafting policy for Hillary Clinton. His appointment would give the administration a prominent official of South Asian descent and a skilled television spokesman.
Gupta, who hosts “House Call” on CNN, has discussed the job offer with his bosses at CBS and CNN to make sure he could be released from his contractual obligations, the sources said.
His role as journalist and physician have sometimes overlapped. During the 2003 Iraq invasion, Gupta was embedded with a Navy unit called Devil Docs and, while covering its mission, performed brain surgery five times, the first of which was on a 2-year-old Iraqi boy.
Gupta’s only hesitation in taking the post is said to involve the financial impact on his pregnant wife and two children if he gives up his lucrative medical and journalistic careers. But he is expected to accept the position within days.
CNN, which Gupta joined in 2001, released a statement saying that, “Since first learning that Dr. Gupta was under consideration for the surgeon general position, CNN has made sure that his on-air reporting has been on health and wellness matters and not on health-care policy or any matters involving the new administration.” An article on CNN’s Web site discussed Gupta’s work for the network, including his coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
At CBS News’s Political Hotsheet blog, Brian Montopoli talked to an unnamed source close to Gupta who says that Gupta “feels drawn to public service.” In his post, Montopoli also adds a couple interesting medical news clips that Gupta did for CBSNews.com.
The Associated Press’s Nedra Pickler opined that Gupta is a smart choice for the influential, but non-cabinet level position:
The surgeon general typically isn’t heavily involved in shaping an administration’s policy, but it can be a very effective bully pulpit. Past surgeons general have proved instrumental in battling tobacco and AIDS.
Having a person comfortable on television could perhaps elevate the now relatively obscure position, and be helpful for Obama, who is personally very health conscious.
Obama’s gain would be yet another loss for CNN, however. If Gupta takes the job, the network will be down one more science-savvy reporter, after having cut its entire, non-medical science and technology team last month.
The Surgeon General position is important, but of late, it has only been seen as a factotum of Bush-carrying, science-undermining placeholders. I wrote about health policy, professional nursing and patient advocacy for several years, but I was and am still dismissed out of hand. The audacity of a nurse having an informed and legitimate opinion!
Very few progressives read substantive posts about policy and the decimation of government functions and the public well-being.
I wrote specifically about former Surgeon General Rich Carmona and what he offered during Congressional testimony. It was hair-raising, but it didn’t garner a ripple from progressives. Carmona has excellent emergency preparedness expertise and experience. He testified that he requested to be sent to New Orleans as a Katrina first responder and that he was denied. Gupta never mentioned that.
Gupta, on the other hand, reports advertiser, commercial pharma crap as unbiased health reportage. He stays to a Wall Street Journal, free market, traditional corporate model of healthcare messaging. He is a commercial sell-out, and he also has many undisclosed conflicts of interest.
Moreover, there is a growing body of evidence that commissioned officers of the USPHS working in the DIHS - the branch that Gupta would be attached to - have been used as agents of abuse and torture on immigrant detainees. The Surgeon General would certainly be obligated to investigate that and report, but no one has. Sec HHS Leavitt has methodically weaponized HHS and used it against the health of the citizenry. DIHS, which was accountable to the USPHS somehow magically migrated to ICA and DHS, and no one is investigating or stopping abusive practices. So not unsurprisingly, people are suffering and dying and no one is doing anything about it.
Gupta has never investigated any Bush/Leavitt/HHS policy or practice. He’s remained silent while the FDA and CDC abdicated their oversight and regulatory responsibilities and imperiled the public safety. For the past eight years, Gupta has never questioned a single thing that the Bush Admin has done.
CNN has even proudly announced that they have repressed all coverage of health policy and health reform since Obama contacted Gupta. The public can not be informed by media who deliberately and willfully withhold vital information.
Carmona would have been a much better pick as he has tons of motive and ability for ferreting out Bush appointee burrowers. He knows the specifics of the science and public health that has been undermined and subverted, and he is passionate about making things right. He also has the support of other former surgeons general.
#1 Posted by Annie, CJR on Wed 7 Jan 2009 at 02:55 PM
The new surgeon general should come from the ranks of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the 6000 member force that the SG will be commanding. There are many viable candidates for SG in the USPHS. Appointing a non-USPHS Commissioned Corps officer to the position of SG is like appointing The Mayor of Scranton to head up the Coast Guard.
#2 Posted by Ed, CJR on Thu 8 Jan 2009 at 02:14 PM
Once is enough Ed.
#3 Posted by dave, CJR on Thu 8 Jan 2009 at 02:16 PM