http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=13526March 5th, 2009 6:18 pm
Gupta Is Out of the Running for Surgeon General
By Gardiner Harris / New York Times
The Obama Administration just got a lot less sexy.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent and a practicing neurosurgeon who was one of People magazine’s “sexiest men alive” in 2003, has announced that he has withdrawn from being considered as surgeon general, CNN reported.
Several other candidates are now under serious consideration, including Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
Dr. Gupta had been approached by the Obama transition team and discussed the job with President-elect Barack Obama late last year in Chicago. Administration officials had confirmed that he was a leading candidate for the job.
Dr. Gupta presides over a small media empire that, in addition to his regular work on CNN, includes appearances on the ”CBS Evening News” and columns in Time magazine. His first book, about the search for immortality, was published in 2007. He is paid for speaking engagements, a controversial practice for a journalist. The All American Talent and Celebrity Network lists his speaking fees as $30,001 to $50,000.