Gupta vs. Michael Moore on Larry King Live

[EraOfResponsibility]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR2U_SAWHdQ&eurl=http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/&feature=player_embedded

Um...Gupta is full of shit. Michael ethered him pretty good here.

IMO Obama made a wrong choice with this pick. Does the surgeon general affect policy decision I certainly hope not, because from this clip it's pretty clear that he's against universal health care.

[physioex]

1. Agreed....

He is a lazy corporate shill who never goes into the full story. Post this on the video boards as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpKoN40K7mA

[leftstreet]

2. K&R People need to see this

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Thanks for posting that. I meant to but got distracted.

Gupta is a corporate shill.

See also

http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10017

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Here's what the Surgeon General does:

"The Office of the Surgeon General, under the direction of the Surgeon General, oversees the operations of the 6,000-member Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service and provides support for the Surgeon General in the accomplishment of his other duties. The Office is part of the Office of Public Health and Science in the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Surgeon General serves as America's chief health educator by providing Americans the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce the risk of illness and injury. The acting Surgeon General is Rear Admiral Steven K. Galson, M.D., M.P.H." http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/

I'm not a huge fan of Dr. Gupta, and I don't like how he busted on Michael Moore, but the Surgeon General just does public health education. He'd have little or no impact on policy decisions regarding how health care is provided, which would be a Congressional function. It's basically a PR job, getting kids to eat their carrots and exercise, and stuff like that.

[EraOfResponsibility]

5. Ah, then that's good news then

If he's only a public face, then that's alright with me. I can live with that.

I can't wait to see what Moore's reaction to this pick is. LOL

[dflprincess]

11. But, the Surgeon General has a platform and a voice

and if he were to decide that one of the ways to "improve the health and reduce the risk of illness" was with a single payer system, his opinion would mean something (remember Koop's anti-smoking campaign when the tobacco companies were still donating big money to Republicans and he was the only one in the Reagan administration who talked about HIV/AIDS in a rational manner).

Gupta is just another corporate friendly appointment who has been in the pocket of big pharma for quite a while.

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2009/01/is-sanjay-gupta.html

Pam Martens wrote in her 2007 piece "CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Laura Bush and the Marketing of Merck's Gardasil" in the political newsletter Counterpunch.

Martens pointed out that Gupta, who promoted the use of Merck's controversial Gardasil vaccine against the HPV virus on air and on his CNN blog, was co-host of a program called AccentHealth, a waiting-room TV network that bills itself as "an integrated health education company" and reaches 132 million viewers. Merck was a financial sponsor.

"Given the incestuous nature of 'integration,' should Dr. Sanjay Gupta have revealed to his CNN viewers during his extolling of the virtues of Gardasil that its manufacturer, Merck, was a financial sponsor of this integrated marketing scheme he co-hosts at AccentHealth?" she asked. "Inquiring minds not yet 'integrated' want to know."

[trthnd4jstc]

6. Thanks for the Youtube link! n/t

[tosh]

7. Thanks for this reminder.

[senseandsensibility]

8. kick

:kick:

[dcindian]

9. But really he doesn't have any power so being a unrepentant liar is good!

He don't need no stinking facts. It is always good to hire liars for high profile positions, and being an outspoken anti universal health care nut is a real plus!

:sarcasm:

[QC]

15. HE'S ONLY GOING TO SING ONE SONG!!11!!1!

[cliffordu]

10. I guess Obama just fucked up again. We might as well pack it in for another 8 years.

:sarcasm:

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

14. Maybe not 8 years ...

in 2013, we could be griping about President-Elect Palin's choice for Surgeon General.

(well, ok, not really likely)

[cottonseed]

12. I agree with most DUers. Micheal Moore should be SG.

Listen, if Gupta can get fat kids to eat less with some snazzy marketing then he'll have done a better job then any recent SG I can remember. If not, then the DUers here that believe he'll hasten the end of humanity are right and I'm wrong.

[Sparkly]

13. I remember it well.

:(

[Phoonzang]

16. Oh well...too bad you can't do anything about it.

Obama's going to pick who he wants to pick *shrugs*

[Hellataz]

17. I really don't see how Sanjay is the devil in this piece.

Sanja Gupta just seems to have a different opinion, but agrees with Michael on many points. He just seems to be making the point that Michael neglected to make it clear in his movie the details involved in free healthcare, details like how the health care is paid for (higher taxes) and what is actually covered.

Michael is passionate about his issues and I agree with him on a lot of things, but I do think Michael does slant his films to make his point stronger. I don't think he lied, nor do I think Sanjay did. I think it was a misunderstanding as well as a difference of opinion on how the point is conveyed to the public.

I also didn't see where Sanjay said Free healthcare was bad, I think he just raised questions about it and tried to make the point that it's not as perfect as many Americans think it might be. I think he wants Americans to know all the facts about free healthcare before we all sign up for it. I personally wouldn't mind paying higher taxes for free health care and I would expect certain procedures to not be covered, but I'm not sure that most americans understand those details when they hear "FREE healthcare".

Michael reminds me sometimes of joe the plumber, in the sense of they are passionate about their points so much so that they refuse to listen to the other side and refuse to accept if they might be wrong. I think much more of Michael than that tool Joe, but Michael needs to chill out and accept criticism and other people's disagreements without getting so self righteous, it makes him look bad.

[EraOfResponsibility]

18. Free healthcare might not be perfect

but it'll be better than what we have now. We should at least get to that point first and then we can figure out how to tweak it to make it better. But the point is, it's needed and soon. I also get what you're saying about Michael, he seemed to be treating Gupta like he was the enemy even though he was agreeing with him on a lot of things. Michael's passionate like that, you know.

[Kdillard]

19. Thank you for that reasonable take on the situation.

I really don't like extremists on either side of the equation.