CNN: The Obama transition team approached Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, about becoming U.S. surgeon general, according to sources inside the transition and at CNN. Gupta was in Chicago, Illinois, in November to meet with President-elect Barack Obama on the matter, sources said. Gupta has declined comment. The transition team is impressed with the combination of Gupta’s past government experience, as a White House fellow in 1997 and a special adviser to then-first lady Hillary Clinton, along with his medical career as a neurosurgeon and his communication skills, the transition source said. Gupta is a member of the staff and faculty of the Department of Neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. He regularly performs surgery at Emory University Hospital and at Grady Memorial Hospital, where he serves as associate chief of neurosurgery. MORE
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Shortly before Michael Moore appeared for an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer last week, the network ran a report by Dr. Sanjay Gupta that had done some fact-checking on Moore’s movie. Gupta’s report made Moore furious, leading to a contentious segment with Blitzer and a debate with Gupta on “Larry King Live” later in the week. Gupta addressed several statistics in “Sicko” before concluding: “No matter how much Moore fudged the facts – and he did fudge some facts – there is one thing everyone can agree on: the (health care) system here should be far better.” The network accuses Moore of “cherry-picking” numbers from different academic studies to make his arguments stronger. CNN said it believes in essentially comparing apples with apples. Moore said he tried to use the most recent data available. Moore was also angry that Gupta interviewed Paul Keckley, who works for the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, as a critic of “Sicko.” Moore said Deloitte’s chairman is Tommy Thompson, President Bush’s former health and human services secretary, and that Keckley had made political contributions to Republican candidates and organizations. MORE
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, FIREATER
Brian Brushwood teaches Dr. Sanjay Gupta how to eat fire in this clip from CNN’s “Life Beyond Limits.”