[Infowarrior] - CNN's Sanjay Gupta, new Surgeon General?

[Richard Forno]

Obama Wants Journalist Gupta for Surgeon General

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2009/01/06/obama_wants_journalist_for_sur.html?hpid=topnews

By Howard Kurtz

President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to  
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS,  
according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the  
final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to  
figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family  
from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer.

When reached for comment today, Gupta did not deny the account but  
declined to comment.

The offer followed a two-hour Chicago meeting in November with Obama,  
who said that Gupta could be the highest-profile surgeon general in  
history and would have an expanded role in providing health policy  
advice, the sources said. Gupta later spoke with Tom Daschle, Obama's  
White House health czar and nominee for Health and Human Services  
secretary, and other advisers to the president-elect.

The Michigan-born son of parents who were born in India, 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.

Kurtz hosts CNN's weekly media program, "Reliable Sources."