Paging Doctor… Surgeon General?

Yes, naming an experienced neurosurgeon with credentials in neurosurgery, psychiatry, neurosciences, full ranging media experiences in dealing with the press, experienced in combat surgery and the needs of combat medicine for a nation involved in two wars is exactly the same as Judge Judy, a retired city family court Judge, for the Supreme Court.
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And the false equivalency stupidity parade of our national media conversation continues unabated here at Chez Jay.

Casey’s spot on. If you refrain from doing something for fear of providing an opportunity for easy, thoughtless criticism, nothing will be done – and the terrorists at FocksNooz will have won.

Two Rachel Ray zings right in a row, slow news day? CSPAN on repeat? Or is Rachel just making some non-ground meat dish right now?

Here’s a tip, Jay–writing the phrase, “and I mean no disrespect here…” and then proceeding to compare Gupta to the virtual buffoons of their respective fields, does not actually absolve you of being disrespectful.
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Try to claim that it’s not actually you who are being disrespectful, but other straw people who will walk through this imagined door of tiny mockery, does not absolve you of being disrespectful either.
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If your going to mock the guy, just do so, or you seem like a coward. If you think others will, just give it five minutes and you will have some member of the 101st Fighting Keyboard Squadron over at Redstate.com that will do it for you. Post the news of the Gupta pick, and then update with the rightwing response.
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Why bother to make yourself into a silly nitwit when the folks at Redstate are lining up to do it instead? You can still make your point and let them take the hit. This is one of the things that made Ana Marie good at blogging.

leaves the door open for a just a tiny bit of mockery. Judge Judy for the Supreme Court? Rachel Ray for White House chef? Flava Flav to head the the DEA! And, hey, Law & Order was one of Fred Thompson’s top credentials in his presidential run.
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When “mockery” isn’t funny, it kind of blows back on its source. Just a friendly tip.

Nancy Grace for Director of the Bureau of Missing White Girls!

Am I missing something? Isn’t the SG a largely symbolic role whose main purpose is to inform and educate the public on relevant health issues? So what is the problem with nominating a telegenic board-certified surgeon with a background in education and reporting? Seems to me he has all of the right qualifications for the job. How this is equivalent to nominating Judge Judy to the SC is a little unclear.

As usual the blogosphere trying to stir up controversy where none really exists…

Jay Newton Small with the emphasis on small. Damn girl, it’s not funny. Leave the humor to Franken or maybe pourmecoffee.

(Copious yawn)What Casey Morris said…did you know “some say” Dr. Gupta’s appointment assists in the TimeWarner headcount reduction program?

Tony Snow for White House Press Secretary… Oh wait. You’re really only open to ridicule if you’re a Democrat.

Since you all have sufficiently ridiculed JNS’ core premise, I’m going to take a different tack on this one. I think this is a very clever politically motivated move that will eliminate one impediment to national health care reform. I vividly remember how efficiently and blatantly Gupta served his corporate masters in nitpicking Michael Moore’s “Sicko” to death. He created doubt about the veracity of a movie that was really quite accurate, and helped suppress the buzz it should have generated on a subject of great national interest.
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With Gupta in the administration, CNN will lose their “most trusted voice for corporate medicine.”

texgator: As usual the blogosphere trying to stir up controversy where none really exists…
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No, as usual the msm is corrupting the blogosphere by trying to stir up controversy where none really exists.

wvng @11 hmmm interesting point, which deserves deeper thought. Thanks.

Wow, this is a bad decision. I’ve actually watched him so I know he’s not qualified (I’m using that word in a broader sense; Please don’t feel the need to point out his medical certification). Also, he has a bad record on health care. http://mediamatters.org/items/200707120001
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I won’t truly believe this until I actually see Obama introducing him as the Surgeon General.

wvng
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I was just about to post about that “Sicko” stunt of Gupta’s and how Moore PWNED his ass on Larry King. Damm we think alike lol.

Wow, this is a bad decision. I’ve actually watched him so I know he’s not qualified (I’m using that word in a broader sense; Please don’t feel the need to point out his medical certification).
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What the hell are you talking about?

I suppose naming Judge Judy as a justice to the Supreme Court would be as stupid as naming the governor of California to be chief justice, right? Oops that was done already:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Warren

I can only chime in with everyone else. Your only argument here JNS is that he’s a tv-personality. Umm, so? Casey really lays out the best points for making the case. I mean really, who respects the SG in this country. Perhaps a TV personality who has the bona fides might actually get people to listen? Does that say more about the state of public policy on healthcare…hmm, that might be something to report on?

I know someone will post on this but Jeb Bush is not running for Senator in 2010. Says time is not right. I hate to crow, but I will! When this first came out I stated I heard Jeb is making too much money to want to run. This confirms this. I doubt he ever runs again for office.

Jim, Foolish Literalist, There have been many discussions about politicians on Swampland – Caroline Kennedy and Sarah Palin in particular – where someone has claimed that they’re not qualified and another poster responded by quoting from the constitution to argue that they are in fact qualified. Obviously those of us who felt that Sarah Palin was not qualified for the Vice-Presidency understood that she was constitutionally qualified. Similarly I understand that as an MD with decent academic experience Gupta is qualified in a narrow sense to be Surgeon General. My comment was an (unsuccessful) attempt to bypass those “qualifications” discussions by specifying that I was talking about qualifications in a broader sense of the term.

Here is the the first PWNING when Gupta wasn’t on with Moore.
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Jay, don’t be dense.
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The surgeon general post is about health care communication. Gupta is a doctor and a journalist.
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Your post is just silly – “the guy is a brain surgeon and a medical professor, but he’s been on TV so that makes him a celebrity and JUST LIKE FRED THOMPSON.” Get a grip.

And now the MAINNNNNNNNNN EVENTTTTTTTTTT
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I’m with Rose on this one. He’s apparently, from the “debunking” of Sicko, in the tank for the people who make their living denying access and denying claims. Replacing the for profit health care system with one that is actually effective is on Obama’s short list. This appointment argues against his being successful at that.

I”m largely with texgator on this news — it reflects a sharp awareness of the current role of the SG and matches that with someone with the right skills and public standing (including what seems to be high levels of public familiarity and “trust” in spite of having clearly enraged some for disagreeing with Michael Moore). The SG doesn’t administer the health care system, the SG is the designated occupant of the health related bully pulpit. Gupta would do a good job, I think, and would probably make great use of YouTube type opportunities for getting health messages out.

leaves the door open for a just a tiny bit of mockery.

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If people just want to JNS then have at it. But I think the tone is a little harsh right now when her post I don’t believe was meant to be very seriously. I mean we can joke around here right? Lord knows I raked her over the coals about the halloween incident but I just don’t see why anybody would be in a huff over this one.

“But picking a television personality…leaves the door open for a just a tiny bit of mockery.”
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You mean like Ronald Reagan or Jesse Ventura?
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Really, for some reason, after Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Greenspan, Paulson, Bernake, Russert, Williams and Gregory and, most of all, George W. Bush, the whole notion of experienced, credentialed and “qualified for the job” is seeming rather quaint to me.

@shepherdwong – I just spit up my drink through my nose I laughed so hard.

I watched the Moore Gupta video, and to say Moore PWNED (whatever that means, I gather it resembles “soundly defeated”) Gupta is fantasy or wishful thinking.

Rose83- in what broader sense is Gupta unqualified for the job? I can’t imagine that your assessment of his “qualifications” is based on one news report on a documentary, that was incidentally panned by large sections of the medical community. Health insurance is much more complicated that Mr Moore would have it seem, as Dr Gupta, I am sure understands because he actually has to deal with it. So, returning to my question, why exactly, if only in “the broader sense” is he unqualified?

And Jay, I think you’re a little off. SG’s job is largely one of communication (see: SG warnings). It would actually make sense to hire someone who has some experience in the communications.

Really Jay – why don’t you say what you really think?

In all seriousness, god forbid we have someone that is not only highly qualified, but knows how to deal with/respond to the press, AND insure that the public stay properly advised.

Rose- If a monkey with a typewriter banged out your last post, it would crumple up the paper and start again.
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Jayackroyd, you read a lot more substance into Rose’s post than was there. Your concerns are valid, but about Obama and Tom Daschle, not the guy who’s going to be popping up on TV once a month to tell us all to eat more whole grains and exercise that much more than they/he told us to exercise the month before.
How many people can say, without googling, who our SG is now?

Next thing you know, they’ll be electing late-night comedians to the Senate.

Meanwhile, if you guys are going to use Rachael Ray as a measure of whatever-it-is, you might consider spelling her name correctly.

I am opposed To Gupta because he is younger than I am.
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Does anybody remember a SG doing anything since Koop and Elders?

Man, you people eat each other alive here.
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SG – I’ve almost watched the whole Moore vs. Gupta video, and I can say with great certainty that Gupta 0wn0r3d Moore.

Should have said sgwhite…

[...] Colleague Jay Newton-Small beats me to the post (and the headline) at [...]

Rose83: As evidence of Gupta’s record, you link to one reference about him of Media Matters, again, involving the incident of his criticism of Moore. How does linking to one incident give evidence on one person’s “record” on healthcare?
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Shouldnt the concusion of someone’s “record” come from citiations of a majority of their on record opinions, or at least more than the citations surrounding his disagreement with Moore about some of Moore’s assertions in the movie, “Sicko”?

Flava Flav to head the the DEA!

Why Flava Flav, when you could get Ice-T and his lovely wife Coco (both have been on Law and Order)?

dumdedum
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The clip is only one half, you would have had to go to the website and see all of the things Moore was alluding to in the clip. He pwned Gumpta in the sense that Gumpta had to repeatedly back down on points he was trying to make AND at the very end Moore exposed Gupta for either not vetting his “expert” guest or doing a very piss poor job of it. Gupta didn’t even make one salient point in the whole conversation. Right after Moore pointed out that the reason we don’t have wait times is because 47 million people don’t have insurance and therefore that cuts down on the amount of people who would be getting appointments AND that many countries with universal healthcare other than Canada don’t have problems with wait times Gupta tried to come back and still argue wait time. If Gupta made any points in that interview I would love to hear them.

Lou Dobbs: Fencemaster General
Howard Kurtz: CYA Director
Contessa Brewer: Contessa

As long as he’s mining the Clinton era for nominees, I’ve love to the return of Jocelyn Elders. Remember her suggestion that masturbation should be recognized as a normal aspect of human sexuality? Shocking in 1994, but perhaps by now the country is ready…

By the way, I am posting from a wonderful B&B in Rochester, after two days of studying paper dolls at the Strong Museum of Play. Great place to bring a kid, or be one again.

Did you hear the point that Gupta was trying to make about the cherry-picking from different reports? Taking one figure from a unsourced BBC piece then picking another (projected) figure from an HHS report when the BBC one had a different number entirely (by $1700)? That’s what cherry-picking is, and I think Gupta did a good job.
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You missed the part about Gupta telling Moore over and over again that he was obfuscating the tax burden, to which Moore replies “it’s FREE! FREE!” over and over without ever acknowledging anything Gupta just said.
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Although I will have to go back and look at the wait times issue.

Jim, Foolish Literalist, sorry if my language was unclear to you. I thought my first post was pretty clear, but since you didn’t get it I tried to be super specific and detailed in my second post. Since neither approach worked I’ll move on.
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Casey Morris et al., can you find any evidence about Gupta’s record on health care that suggests his inaccurate and biased comments on Sicko were an aberration?
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BTW, I get the argument that essentially the Surgeon General is a spokesperson for sound health habits so Gupta’s communications background coupled with his academic credentials qualifies him for the job. Maybe that’s right. I just don’t think it’s a good idea to have a Surgeon General who spreads inaccurate information about health care.

Whenever I see a member of the press mocking someone else, I am reminded that Joy Behar on “The View” was the first person to actually ask a tough question of John McCain re: childhood sex ed ads.

The Borgen Project has informative statistics on addressing global poverty.

$30 billion ends world hunger
$550 billion is the US Defense budget

This organization has the ability, resources, and policy-makers to suppress the threat of global poverty by enacting legislation here in the US, which is tied to the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. Please support organizations such as The Borgen Project so that we may rid the world of poverty.

Cookie Puss- Good point. Likewise, David Letterman often asks tougher questions than the Sabbath Gasbags, ’cause he has no interest in playing that stupid Russertian gotcha game or meeting any David Broder/Cokie Roberts standard of “reasonableness”. He just goes to the heart of the matter and cuts off any of the spin that the Gasbags feed on.

yoshia
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Go back and look at it again. Moore made a very clear point that by paying for premiums/co pays/out of pocket expenses we are in effect paying higher taxes anyway.

and I again i must point out that all of that was Gupta trying to change the subject. Moore on his website showed that his numbers were in fact legit and that Gupta was using out of date numbers. I am not saying Moore is above cherry picking, but at least in this case he made a very strong case that it was Gupta doing the cherry picking AND he pointed out Gupta’s ties to Big Pharma

I’m with Rose on this one. He’s apparently, from the “debunking” of Sicko, in the tank for the people who make their living denying access and denying claims. Replacing the for profit health care system with one that is actually effective is on Obama’s short list.
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Jay, you obviously paid no attention to Obama’s health care proposal, which is all about keeping the insurance companies and for-profit health care corporations in business, and does practically nothing in terms of providing universal health care. Gupta is the perfect shill for Obama’s bogus “plan”.
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as for Gupta’s qualifications — he’s telegenic. But being a brain surgeon doesn’t mean you know anything about medicine, because a surgeon is basically a mechanic whose most important skills are steady hands.

Sorry, ymmartin, I owe you a beverage.
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Seriously though, we’ve been failed by our entire elite class in government, industry and the corporate-owned press, regardless of their experience or credentials. These are all executive positions that require a sound, well-reasoned judgment about the policies that are developed by others and the leadership to get the good ones enacted, despite right-wing obstruction. So it’s good judgment – the ability to tell sh*t from Shinola – and good political/leadership skills I’m looking for.

Rose 83 I think you should distinguish between giving inaccurate information about health care and allegedly inaccurate information about the health insurance system, which at best must be considered as a subjective interpretation. The job of the surgeon general is to inform the public about evidenced based health issues, primarily preventative medicine and emergency health alerts. In this respect Gupta is uniquely qualified because he is a well known figure who has built a great deal of trust with the public on such matters. Now if his job was to set health care policy I could see your concerns, but to say that he is not qualified simply because you don’t like his interpretation of the facts is a bit much. Please be careful that we don’t start having that litmus test that no one should be eligible for a job in this administration unless we adhere to a certain dogma.

@rose83 and others talking about Gupta and Moore video. Can anyone show me where the SG has ever provided any policy initiatives in regards to health insurance – not health or healthy living; health insurance and access to health care, definitely two different things no?

I haven’t seen the clip, but from the comments about Gupta’s points, I’m not surprised; he is a doctor, and doctors are a big part of the problem in terms of the cost and access to health insurance. Someone previously mentioned the point that he was backing the big business perspective, but having worked in the health insurance industry; I’d say it sounds like he was taking the side of doctors with their usual arguments regarding access to care and cost. Doctors – even as individual business owners – are a major voice in current policy discussions. They may not be fans of the current system, but their points of view primarily focus on increasing payments from insurers and patients.

I would never consider Gupta as Sec of Health and Human Services because of what I describe above – it is a generalization I know, but I think you understand my point. Anyway, I just thought there might be a distinction between the two perspectives.

@Dee, you read my mind, and beat me to the post by 7 min….

Rose 83 I think you should distinguish between giving inaccurate information about health care and allegedly inaccurate information about the health insurance system, which at best must be considered as a subjective interpretation.
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Dee in Columbia MD, I agree about the distinction but I strongly disagree about the “subjective interpretation.” He was wrong; No subjectivity or adherence to a certain dogma is required to see that. As I said in my last post, I see the point about the Surgeon General essentially being involved in PR. But his record on health care access is problematic. Also, anything he’s said that could be interpreted as being against fundamental health care reform will be used by Republicans. By making him Surgeon General, Obama will be further legitimizing his past comments on health care.

For a second, I thought I’d be the first one w/ the Michael Moore stuff. Gupta’s one of those ‘marijuana is more dangerous than people think’ people, but then again, so is OBama.

At least he didn’t tap Dr. Oz for the post…

…which I should add is the mark of ‘seriousness’ in the medical field just like ‘war = the right course of action’ is in foreign policy.

Rose: Wrong about what, exactly? The stats?
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sgwhite: I did see Moore making the point about higher payments due to copays and deductibles, and Gupta said he agreed with him, but that wasn’t the original point of contention. Gupta basically asked him to stop overgeneralizing, particularly in respect to the risk that government control could outweigh savings with tax burden. In response, Moore finally quit discussion – since he couldn’t admit that there is no such thing as “free” healthcare.

@ynmartin — I wouldn’t think much of Gupta as Sec Def or Treasury either. He’s not being offered those, however, nor HHS.

sgwhite — I can’t find additional video but in what I saw I didn’t see anyone owning anyone, Moore or Gupta. Gupta’s point was that Moore’s depiction of health care in other countries as “free” was misleading — those services have to be funded somehow (the drs. in France have to have the ability to buy wine and croissants, right?). Moore’s saying that copays etc are the equivalent of higher taxes is just a way of making Gupta’s point for him, not refuting Gupta’s point.

I’m in favor of a national health care system, and Moore is probably a useful blabbermouth and propagandist for moving that forward. But an actual system will be built on extremely dry nuts and bolts that Moore is not relevant to. He’s a gadfly and I’m glad he’s around, to simplify things to black and white. But he’s a media person, not a policy person. And Gupta is a different kind of media person (along with his apparent surgical skills), probably closer to a policy person than Moore is, and probably pretty good for a 21st century SG, or at least that’s my bet. Certainly better for that role that Moore might be.

Wasn’t part of Moore’s advice to Obama in that Rolling Stone piece that Obama should keep his distance or even attack Moore? Moore knows his role, and probably knows how politics has to work. So does Obama. It ain’t pretty, but neither is Moore (nor I)

By the way, just in general, I hadn’t realized Michael Moore worship had become so pronounced.

Doesn’t Gupta also contribute pretty regularly to Time?

Time to change the subject:

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has decided to investigate possible anti-trust violations on the part of the BCS since the University of Utah was not allowed to play for the mythical national championship. Apparently he is taking a page out of Norm Coleman’s political book, if you don’t like the results SUE!

One would think the AG of Utah would be more concerned about sexual abuse of young girls in certain Morman sects, but no he’s more concerned about football.

This type of concern over stupid issues would be truly sad then you realize he’s a Republican and it all makes sense!

hey hey hey newfloridian, you leave the BCS out of this, we all know if any team deserved to be in the national championship it was USC.

Rose83 – Facts may be objective but as a statistician I feel quite comfortable saying the interpretation of facts is generally a subjective matter, which I might add is usually determined by the interpreter’s agenda conscious or otherwise. Gupta is quite qualified to remind me that it is time for my colonoscopy or mammogram and that losing weight is the best way for me to avoid diabetes and as surgeon general that will be his job. In fact, because he is well known and trusted by much of the viewing public, which also includes the millions of patients who see him on the nationwide network of health programming carried in physicians offices, he is uniquely suited to remind men to get that prostate exam. This has nothing to do with health care policy, access, prescription drug coverage or medical marijuana. We should not be in the habit of judging someone unfit to do one job simply because we don’t agree with their position on something else. God help us all if this become the standard upon which we are all to be judged.

Interestingly, the last SG that left any impression was also viewed as sort of clowny (he wore a Captain Crunch outfit for godsakes) yet did a lot to promote accurate information about HIV, at a time when some public figures were calling for quarantines and tattoos.

Late to the party, but I am going to have to join the folks that think Gupta is qualified to be SG. I also have to agree that taking the Michael Moore incident or whatever you want to call it and judging him unqualified I think is a bit unfair. I watched Moore and Gupta on Larry King and even though I supported Moore I think Gupta more than held his own. And as far as I remember when the two actually got together they agreed more than they disagreed. I think the place to pin Gupta down on any concerns about his health care policies is at his confirmation hearings. That’s my opinion and I’m having another beer now.
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Before I do though, JNS-that the guy is on tv thing is just stupid. Did you forget that Jay Carney is going to on Biden’s staff and he’s been on tv a lot too.

Juan Cole is on the Young Turks.
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http://www.theyoungturks.com/

I submit, without shame, that the humor potential in this pick is, in fact, greater than its importance to the nation. How about the ultimate celebrity pick:

Tyler Perry’s House of Representatives

I really can’t believe yall are taking JNS so seriously on this one.
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Maybe its me and I am just not sufficiently outraged today or something.
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OT The troopers took back the accusation that they delayed Bristol Palin’s baby daddy’s momma’s drug arrest because of the election. I called that one the other day. But Bristol’s baby daddy DID have to quit his job as an electrical apprentice because he might have gotten some help getting it.
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http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/643595.html

Progressive Blogger takes job in congress. This is very good news. He has a lengthy post up at his site.
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However, Matt Stoller-Knows the democrats have a serious leadership problem.
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Well, I suppose I had to make the announcement at some point, so here goes. I won’t be blogging at OpenLeft for some time. I’ve taken a job inside the House of Representatives (more on that when I’ve cleared what I can say) to see how the place works and to help create the space for more progressive policies.
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This is not, of course, new. Liberal leaders have ignored and mocked their base since, well, the good sensible liberals wrote Aaron Burr out of the revolution because of his proto-feminist and anti-slavery views. So-called liberal journalists have carried this even further; Arthur Brisbane, who said that he took in “socialism with his mother’s milk”, didn’t think much of the muckraking classic ‘The Jungle’. He told Upton Sinclair, the author that “a slaughter-house is not an opera-house”, and gave him a nice “fatherly pat on the shoulder,”. We’ve always been called shrill, that’s as American as apple pie.
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http://openleft.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=7952B97D5BD473F2440379AAA7E27E2C?diaryId=10743

Could Gupta as SG continue doing the various medical office video messaging he apparently is currently doing? (knock wood, I don’t have to spend much time in medical offices so I haven’t seen any of them) Would that be appropriate? Would it be effective as a public information strategy?

“Did you forget that Jay Carney is going to on Biden’s staff and he’s been on tv a lot too.”
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That prompted me to scroll up and check if Jay’s picture was still up. I see Murphy has been disappeared.
And he didn’t even say good-bye.

dumdedumdum–
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“Could Gupta as SG continue doing the various medical office video messaging he apparently is currently doing?”
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Actually, i would be entirely appropriate because it is generally focused on the 2010 initiative which is the evidenced based preventive medicine that was spear headed by the surgeon generals office. His video postings are not about policy they are about health issues and would be a helpful medium to educate the public about health concerns. See he already has a leg up on the SG job — uniquely qualified I say.

“That prompted me to scroll up and check if Jay’s picture was still up. I see Murphy has been disappeared.
And he didn’t even say good-bye.”
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Makes you wonder why he was even here in the first place.

Yes it does gunny. Scherer had the McCain Love beat covered.

[...] Swampland blog is not handing out any free passes to their sister company’s anchor. Jay Newton Small brings forth the snark: But picking a television personality — and here I mean no disrespect, the guy is clearly a [...]

I always wondered what a PUMA might look like. YIKES!!!
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Yogi,

I totally agree it would be fun to see Florida light up USC!!!!

This begs the question: Why does Time keep JNS on their payroll?
I mean, who could be more qualified than Dr. Gupta? Surgeon General is the federal spokesperson on public health: who would do it better than someone who teaches and practices medicine as well as being a top-notch medical correspondent for CNN? I don’t know how JNS got to the conclusion that Dr. Gupta is not qualified, but the notion that because Dr. Gupta appears on TV he is not qualified is beyond me.

JNS — is the crack on Gupta related to some sort of snobbishness of print media types over TV media types? How high school!

Gupta is a lousy pick, though technically is qualified (and yeah, Jay, your snark was misguided). I’m not sure if this has been linked yet, but it certainly sums up my feelings:
http://www.naturalnews.com/News_000649_Dr_Sanjay_Gupta_Obama_Surgeon_General.html
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Wherever Gupta goes, there’s a great deal of corporatism and Modern American-style medicine following him. Whether it’s CNN who pushes sleazy Nasonex ads in between bits of, yes, ambushing Moore on TV over Sicko, or using his segments to pimp Merck’s controversial Gardasil vaccine along with Laura Bush, this guy always reeked.
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This man is certainly not a change agent. I’d personally support an SG that pushes for established alternative medicines like acupuncture, and finally stands up to Big Pharma and Big HMO, but Gupta certainly will not be that person.

An SG that pushes acupuncture will be WAY out there.

An SG that pushes acupuncture will be WAY out there.

Not really, the Bush administration was full of little pricks.

“Wherever Gupta goes, there’s a great deal of corporatism and Modern American-style medicine following him.”
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Here’s how it would work: doctors who prescribed the drug company’s products and avoided competing drugs were paid “consulting fees” of tens of thousands of dollars. And what kind of consulting did these doctors do? The kind of consulting that requires nothing more than signing a blank sheet of paper and cashing the check, of course. And thousands of doctors participated in this criminal scam, collecting untold sums of money in exchange for hyping Schering-Plough’s pharmaceuticals to patients. (Medical ethics, anyone?)

Doctors were paid even more money to conduct fraudulent clinical trials that would require patients to take the drugs for twelve months at a time, which of course rang up even more drug profits for the manufacturer and resulted in more kickbacks to the doctors. That’s right: they’re literally playing doctor with your life while pocketing the drug money.
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And this was going on in one form another with almost every doctor and drug company.
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http://www.naturalnews.com/001298.html

I am delighted to see that the discussion on Gupta and Sicko that I began early in the thread at http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/01/06/paging-doctor-surgeon-general/#comment-32205 has continued with great fervor. I was pleased to see that I beat sgw to the punch by a few minutes. Also most happy to see that Paul Krugman agrees with me and the others who found Gupta fundamentally dishonest in his nitpicking.
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The trouble with Sanjay Gupta
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So apparently Obama plans to appoint CNN’s Sanjay Gupta as Surgeon General. I don’t have a problem with Gupta’s qualifications. But I do remember his mugging of Michael Moore over Sicko. You don’t have to like Moore or his film; but Gupta specifically claimed that Moore “fudged his facts”, when the truth was that on every one of the allegedly fudged facts, Moore was actually right and CNN was wrong. etc. etc.
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nuff said, other than repeating my suggestion that Obama appointed him as a likable, credible appointment to SG so as to remove him from doing harm to the prospects for passage of national health care from his corporate perch at CNN.

Ah, pourme, the perfect nightcap. Thanks.

And so to bed.

Hmmm, more on CNN/Gupta’s dishonest hatchet job on Sicko at Schwitzer health news blog.

“An SG that pushes acupuncture will be WAY out there.”
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Why? Acupuncture has been proven successful, even for pets, such as this example (couldn’t find the CNN edition of this or a similar story):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1479933/Acupuncture-saves-Chester-from-a-dogs-life.html
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Acupuncture also cured my chronic bronchitis of six years whereas years of treatment including doctors simply pimping Advair to me, a $200 steroid inhaler, failed. The same doc later called me personally to chew me out over seeing an acupuncturist. Wonder why that is.
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There are quacks, of course, as with doctors themselves, but otherwise the only thing “way out there” is your statement.
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Speaking of Advair, this is a drug ironically pimped often on the MSM networks, and especially during Gupta’s segments.

#34 pourmecoffee

Nice!

Moore fact checking Gupta
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http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10026

Moore on CNN’s admissions of flubs
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http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2007-07-17

Very interesting: but tell me: who needs that ridiculous uniform?

Let’s put it this way Sanjay Gupta is no C. Everett Koop. Dr. Gupta adds no value imho. I can’t believe there isn’t a well qualified career public health doc, who really could be an advocate against smoking and obesity, and an advocate for sex eduation, STD prevention, all the use of alternatives to western medicine.
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Dr. Gupta, I feel is an opportunist.

Here, by the way, are the duties of the SG and the Office of the SG

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/about/index.html

I find the hackles raised by Gupta (and by his temerity in goading Moore about his sources and characterizations) to be weird and fascinating.

dumdedumdum: How so?

[...] Another new rule: people who have been on television should not serve in the cabinet or risk death by mocker. This is courtesy of Jay Newton-Small. [...]

Jay Newton-Small: “But picking a television personality — and here I mean no disrespect, the guy is clearly a multi-tasking genius — leaves the door open for a just a tiny bit of mockery. Judge Judy for the Supreme Court? Rachel Ray for White House chef? Flava Flav to head the the DEA!”

-

Any second now, expect Newton-Small to share her worries that the United States may someday elect as president a thoroughly unqualified, terrorist fraternizing, community organizer. Maybe not, but surely Newton-Small would share her worries about a secretary of state nominee whose foreign policy “expertise” is limited to seeking clemency from her husband for 16 convicted, imprisoned FALN terrorists.

Jay Newton-Small was funnier when she was trying to defend the press stalking Sasha and Malia Obama.

Andy, Gupta’s principal sin seems to be having taken a go at Moore (and in the bits of tape I saw — the King stuff, that is — Moore sputtered and backtracked as much or more as Gupta, adjusting for the fact that Gupta is more willing to acknowledge misstatement or overstatement than Moore. Moore’s insistence that medical treatment in other places is “free” is absurd and quite misleading. Gupta is wrong about waits by and large (on both sides — I’ve also seen plenty of waits in the US)).

If I had to make a choice, I’d be more comfortable with Gupta having responsibility for designing a health care system than Moore, because Moore’s a filmmaker not a health care person. Fortunately I don’t face that choice, even if Gupta becomes surgeon general.

Perhaps if Gupta said 10 screw Bushes and a couple of hail Krugmans he’d be absolved and could go forward to sin no more! (Don’t misunderstand me, I say several screw Bushes and hail Krugmans myself every day on waking and before retiring at the end of the day.)

This is just so absurd. What differentiates the left from the right. Personally, I know I didn’t work my ass off for the last two years so that we could continue this propensity to judge an individuals worth based on a single piece of information. So far all I see is how Gupta didn’t fall into line with Michael Moore oh and as an American doctor he committed the cardinal sin of promoting American style medicine. Are we really going to judge the worth of some one’s future contribution on a single action – God help us (figure of speech because I know God isn’t particularly welcome in these discussion either).

Where does Daschle stand on what Moore proposes? I assume Daschle will have more policy impact than Gupta.

Given the Bush/GOP economic mess, what type of Universal Health Care Plan is going to be proposed/enated?

dumdedumdum: I appreciate you responding to my question. Neither Michael Moore nor Sanjay Gupta are my answers for the leading health care policy advocate in this country as Surgeon General.
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While I appreciate Moore’s efforts to challenge authority and the status quo as a filmmaker, and Gupta’s telegenic personna, how about someone with more substance?
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I don’t know who that is, but someone with career public health experience should fit the bill better.

Dee: My challenging Dr. Gupta has nothing to do with Michael Moore. It has to do with his lack of expertise in public health policy.

Andy as someone who does a lot of research in preventative health care and the 2010 initiative – one of the main focuses in reducing health care cost is disease prevention. If this is indeed the case who better than someone the public knows and trusts on providing health information that might reduce disease.
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I get that we are all probably capable of doing our own health care research — but the job of the surgeon general is to sell the administration’s health care policy and to inform the public about health issues. My question is why is it that no one wants to walk in the shoes of average Americans and recognize that they are more apt to listen to a Gupta that has come into their living rooms on a regular basis and they trust. It strikes me that in this era for change focusing on some unknown government credentialed individual that satisfies the intelligentsia but makes absolutely no impact on the public at large is the status quo and putting someone in the job that has the ability to communicate preventative measures on a large scale is actually something new. Face it, previous surgeon generals have only been noticed because of some controversy otherwise they remain anonymous. The major thrust of the SG office of the last 10 years has been the 2010 initiative yet few people even know what that is? If Gupta can get health covered by the media I say go for it.

_Dee nails it…….Personally, I know I didn’t work my ass off for the last two years so that we could continue this propensity to judge an individuals worth based on a single piece of information. So far all I see is how Gupta didn’t fall into line with Michael Moore oh and as an American doctor he committed the cardinal sin of promoting American style medicine. We are talking about the surgeon general.

_While some may view surgeons as mechanics with a good set of hands, a review of texts on differential diagnosis on something as simple as a “Tummy ache” will change this point of view. It is as important to know when not to cut as the variations of human anatomy. It is more than cutting and sewing.

_Andy from MA, Daschle is going to be the point person in public health policy, not Gupta. C Everett Koop was a practicing pediatric surgeon at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia prior to becoming Surgeon General. In the SG post, physician’s do what they do in the daily practice of medicine. When an issue comes up outside of your area of expertise, you get a consult with a skilled subspecialist. You ask questions about the risks involved with a given approach, come to a consensus and present the options to the patient.

A surgeon general has a vast array of people that he/she can access for up to date information regarding the public health approach to different illnesses. Even public health physicians specialize in certain aspects of illness. Some focus on Infectious Disease, others on Oncology, Cardiology, Pulmonology, etc. That’s why Public Health Departments in medical schools and at the state level are manned by more than just one MD. Gupta is capable of performing as SG.

Dee, thanks for responding. I value your perspective and your expertise as a health care researcher. I personally don’t find Dr. Gupta that compelling. That’s probably because I don’t watch much cable news. I see him as a personality first, and a physician second.
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Would you feel the same way if the Stephanie Abrams from the Weather Channel was named to head NOAA and be the adminstration’s expert on global warming? She has a high TVQ ratings and people who watch would feel comfortable seeing talking about climate change. Am I making a fair comparison?

Dee and rmrd, what about him?

http://www.wchstv.com/abc/gma/timothyjohnson.shtml

Andy, NOAA is a operational agency providing weather related products and information to all sorts of users — I wouldn’t think it houses the nation’s climate change authoritative expertise on climate change, although it has a small research office. In addition, there isn’t a lot people can do about weather beyond staying out of the way (this is less so for climate change but updating your light bulbs and buying a Prius only gets you so far) — this is quite different I think from the health care bully pulpit that the SG office provides.

I wave the white flag of surrender. May Dr. Gupta wear the three stars proudly. It must be a generational thing. I just can’t make the connection here, my apologies to all.

Let’s put it this way Sanjay Gupta is no C. Everett Koop. Dr. Gupta adds no value imho. I can’t believe there isn’t a well qualified career public health doc, who really could be an advocate against smoking and obesity, and an advocate for sex eduation, STD prevention, all the use of alternatives to western medicine.
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Andy, that’s pretty much what my mom said.
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Dee, I feel you’re responding to arguments no one is making. But I do appreciate your perspective as a health researcher.
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Also, I haven’t seen any data that suggests Gupta is in fact widely respected. He has a TV show and he’s written (not very scholarly) books. I’ve watched him on CNN, and while I don’t mind spending five minutes watching him while I prepare lunch or something, he doesn’t inspire great trust or admiration. Is Gupta the best Surgeon General to handle a flu pandemic, for example? Basically, being a TV personality doesn’t necessarily mean someone has gravitas or the reputation of strength and competence.

Rose: “that’s pretty much what my mom said.”
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LOL you made my day!

[...] broached about the position as US Surgeon General. Is he a good choice? Then, again – still – he’s a tv doctor – a real doctor, but… he’s on tv. But, it looks like this is for real. No more Dr. [...]