President-elect Obama’s appointment of the telegenic Dr. Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General is drawing criticism from progressives. Gupta hosts "House Calls" on CNN and is a medical contributor to CBS. He also

provides medical segments for the syndicated version of ER on TNT, writes a column for TIME magazine, anchors the global health program Vital Signs for CNN International and is featured in a weekly podcast on health issues called "Paging Dr. Gupta."

Currently Dr Gupta is weighing the financial implications of leaving his medical practice and the media spotlight. Along with all his other work as a journalist, Gupta co-hosts Turner Private Network’s Accent Health

AccentHealth is America’s #1 Integrated Health Media Company offering advertisers multiple consumer touch points in physician waiting rooms…Our integrated office promotions further engage our viewers and provide advertisers additional exposure in targeted physician practices. 

 In othe words, programming paid for by advertisers targetting folks waiting to see their doctors.

AccentHealth has consistently demonstrated superior communication effectiveness because of the credibility of our environment and of our CNN content and hosts. Dr. Gupta has gained enormous popularity with our viewers.

According to AccentHealth’s website

Programming and advertising messages are strictly separated within the show to maintain programming integrity.

Though

With implied endorsement from the physician and a relevant, captive environment offering ad recall scores twice as high as network and cable, AccentHealth offers a unique and effective media environment for all advertisers including: DTC, OTC, Consumer Packaged Goods, Health & Beauty, and more.

Counterpunch brought this up erroneous exchange:

Miles O’Brien: Let’s talk about Vioxx. Some indication it might increase the risk of heart attack?

Gupta: This stat has been around since August of 2001. They talked about the increase of heart attack with Vioxx. The numbers are very small. Perhaps a small percentage increase in the overall risk of heart attacks with Vioxx. They say 37 percent to 39 percent but that’s of a very small number. After 90 days, no increased risk.

 It’s difficult to imagine a statement more riddled with factual inaccuracies. And where did Dr. Gupta get his information? He tells us in the interview: "We’ve talked to the makers of Vioxx, the Merck company." 

During the campaign Gupta, while attempting to explain McCain’s proposed health care plan, cited out of date data and mispresented who exactly the data was from–maybe he just didn’t pay attention, but there’s a difference between being "the largest provider of health insurance" and  being a lobbying organization for its insurance company members! Sorta like there’s a difference between the medulla oblongata and the prefrontal lobe–a mistake Gupta, a brain surgeon, hopefully won’t ever make.

The take-away for viewers, though, was that a family could buy a policy for the amount offered by McCain’s tax credit. 

And then there was Gupta’s handling of Michael Moore and Sicko, which Charles Krugman comments on today:

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. 

Maybe Gupta will decide for the financial health of his family being America’s family doctor isn’t a panacea. Or maybe Apollo Smintheus will lob some wiser thoughts over the BigPharma siege wall of the Teevee Doctor’s mind.