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March 5, 2009: Dr. Sanjay Gupta pulls out. See SAJAforum coverage.
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UPDATE: CNN's statement:
"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."
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Story broken by Howard Kurtz at 2:36 pm in the Washington Post:
President-elect Obama has offered position heading up public health policy to correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is expected to accept.
Howard Kurtz | 2:36 p.m. ET
We are updating this as we learn more. Please post your comments, links, etc, below.
NOTE: Several of you have wrote into ask about this line, which is in the NYT and WP pieces:
Mr. Gupta, a 39-year-old son of Indian and Pakistani parents, grew up in Michigan. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Michigan. - NYT
UPDATE: His parents, Subhash Gupta and Damyanti Gupta are Indian immigrants. A friend says: "So I did learn something as a student at Columbia: When in doubt go to the source. I called Damyanti Gupta and she said Sanjay Gupta is 100 percent Indian, no Pakistani." (Please note we are only trying to make sure the information put out by the media was accurate - which country his parents are actually from has no relevance to his work, of course).
More on Dr. Gupta: CNN bio | Wikipedia
PREZ RACE: Dr. Sanjay Gupta's look at who is "Fit to Lead" - a show about the medical histories of the presidents (and features several White House physicians - a different job than this)
More on the role of the Surgeon General at SurgeonGeneral.gov
SAJAforum coverage of Sanjay Gupta:
- Listen to SAJA webcast with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Ali Velshi of CNN, Priya David, Hari Sreenivasan of CBS, Roop Raj of WDSU-TV talk about covering hurricanes
- From BlogTalkRadio's blog:
While chatting with SAJA host Sree Sreenivasan in September about covering Hurricane Gustav, Dr. Gupta dismissed the notion that such assignments are glamorous.
“During Hurricane Katrina, I slept in a building that was on lockdown, that had no air-conditioning, no power – in the August New Orleans heat,” he said.
“For several days, I slept in my car . . . There’s nothing open. There’s no stores, no restaurants. You can’t get food. You can’t wash your clothes. The things you take for granted are all of a sudden all gone.” - BOOKS: Sanjay Gupta is "Chasing Life"
- TV: Michael Moore goes after Dr. Sanjay Gupta
