Obama picks CNN’s TV doctor as surgeon general: reports
WASHINGTON (AFP) ñ President-elect Barack Obama wants CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta to be his surgeon general and serve as chief overseer of Americans’ health, the network said Tuesday.
Gupta, a neurosurgeon who is well known from his television and print reporting on medical matters, would bring star power to a job that normally labors in obscurity.
CNN’s management confirmed that Gupta had been approached by the Obama team. The Atlanta-based media celebrity was said to be considering a move to Washington to take on the job, which requires Senate confirmation.
Reports by CNN itself along with other networks and the Washington Post said Obama’s transition team was impressed by Gupta’s communications skills and his past experience in government as a White House adviser during the 1990s.
In a statement, CNN management said: “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.”
A transition spokesman declined to comment on the reports.
As head of the 6,000-member Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the surgeon general acts as the government’s chief educator on public health issues, but has little direct role in policy-making.
The position is perhaps best known to Americans through the surgeon general’s health warnings printed on all cigarette packets sold in the country.
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