Celebrity surgeon general?
It has leaked out that Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s medical correspondent and host of the network’s House Call, is under consideration by the Obama administration for the surgeon general post. He is a real doctor, a neurosurgeon, and, of course, has excellent communication skills, which would be a big asset for the position. However, his work on a health network beamed to doctor’s waiting rooms across the country has raised some conflict-of-interest concerns because of drug-company sponsorship of those programs.
WORLD columnist Gene Edward Veith calls this sort of appointment part of a growing “celebritocracy.” Do you agree? Would this be akin to President Bush naming Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano to fill a Supreme Court vacancy? Or do you think Gupta would be a wise choice for the president-elect?




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back to top10 Comments to “Celebrity surgeon general?”
It’s largely a bully pulpit post. We got by for a few years with no one occupying that slot.
My choice? I’d prefer someone well versed in preventive med and/or pediatric illnesses. Other choices I’d put forward: T. Berry Brazelton, Mehmet Oz or the renown neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Carson’s brilliance and skill are long-documented and his life is truly great American success story.
But one of my favorite “celeb physicians” is Dr Dean Edell. This despite his predictable cynicism towards abstinence and a host of other public policy issues held dearly by fundagelicals
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Obviously an activist-oriented doctor out to change the nation’s health practices could be a threat to those with a vested interest in the status quo. One recalls Jesse Helms always duking it out with Dr Coop. Preventive medicine is so much cheaper than our efforts to correct or compensate for preventible conditions. But preventive acts (cigarette labels, FDA enforcemt)are as embraceable as a porcupine.
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We have the advent of “The Nanny Doctor” who will mandate food choices and a whole host of other health issues. I find it ironic that liberals advocate choices in sexuality and abortion but not in other life-style choices and certainly not school choice.
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Let’s hope that Obama doesn’t go for another Clinton retread and pick Jocelyn Elders.
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I admit to bias with respect to Andy Napolitano, but the man is brilliant with respect to the law and would make a good choice if that were the only criteria. He can more than do the job.
He was always voted the best professor in law school. He was NJ’s youngest judge to receive full tenure on the trial level. The reason he left the bench, however, concerns me. He left for money, and I think a few other personal reasons, but I’m not his psychiatrist. I think his time on tv rules him out because of that insipid judge show he did, and because people have an impression already of how he would decide a case. He has a paper trail, but he also has a radio and tv trail, and that’s even worse. So, no, I would not nominate him. (Thankfully, this is anonymous.)
I do not think rendering medical advice as Dr. Gupta does on tv is the same thing. As noted, the surgeon general has a bully pulpit, and name recognition can help there. People know and trust him, just as they do Dr. Oz. It’s not a lifetime position, so as long as I could base his appointment on his skills as a physician (he’s a real surgeon), Gupta’s celebrity doesn’t bother me all that much.
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I don’t know what the Surgeon General is supposed to do and I’ll bet you don’t either. So, it probably doesn’t matter who it is. Dr. Gupta is pretty and brown. What other criteria are there?
Sawgunner (1): Other choices I’d put forward: T. Berry Brazelton, or. . . Ben Carson.
Brazelton’s a fruit cake who’s sold a million books of the “children crave what they’re allergic to” genre.
Carson’s brilliance and skill are long-documented. . .
Documented mostly by Dr. Carson himself. I’m pretty brilliant and skilled in my autobiography, too.
. . . and his life is truly great American success story.
True enough.
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I never watch CNN. Is this the guy from American Idol?
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I like Dean Edell also.
#3: Cuts both ways.
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I don’t like Dr. Dean Edell.
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A good kick in Michael Moore’s pants (and Krugman’s). Another disappointment to the left.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/01/krugman-newsbus.html
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