Everyday Ethics

Dr. Sanjay Gupta wears many hats, or in his case, multiple white coats. He's a practicing neurosurgeon, CNN's chief medical correspondent, a TIME magazine columnist and more.

His multifaceted roles present ethical problems. The pressure points are on the principle of journalistic independence.

For the last couple of months it appeared that Sanjay Gupta was likely to become this country's surgeon general. He met with Barack Obama about that job and discussed it extensively with administration officials.

On March 5 he withdrew his name from consideration, saying he wants to spend more time with his family and on his medical practice. He also will continue as a journalist for CNN.

My first reaction to the news of Gupta opting out focused on a tepid effort by his CNN colleagues to genuinely report the story of his withdrawal. My heightened concern focuses on the erosion of Gupta's journalistic independence given his two-plus months of discussions with the Obama administration about becoming surgeon general.

While the surgeon general's position is not the most important in the cabinet, it is reasonably high profile and its relevance is considerable in the current debate over health care issues and government policy.

Gupta's withdrawal from consideration deserved scrutiny it did not receive on CNN Thursday night. Larry King had a buddy-buddy chat with Gupta that elicited little insight. But King's show is more entertainment than journalism.

However, on "Anderson Cooper 360," which is a news program, Cooper said how happy he was Gupta was going to stay at CNN and lobbed a few simple questions his way. There was no serious attempt to probe why Gupta had stayed in contention for over two months only to withdraw now. No effort to report on what his pulling out might mean to an Obama administration that has lost a number of appointees. No references to concerns about Gupta voiced by some politicians.

Cooper did not interview Gupta as he might have Bill Richardson or other potential nominees who withdrew from consideration.

It was ironic that CNN used a breaking news label for the interview, imparting the event with that sense of importance, then treated Gupta's interviews like soft news.

Cooper certainly didn't go where New York Times columnist Paul Krugman went in questioning Gupta's possible nomination as surgeon general.

Nor did Cooper touch on the points made in The New Republic article headlined "Sanjay Gupta Treads The Ethical Line." That TNR story said Gupta "is no stranger to the ethically sticky situation physicians often find themselves in with drug companies."

There was nothing in the Thursday night CNN coverage comparable to the Los Angeles Times story on Gupta's withdrawal that detailed crititcs' concerns about his connections to pharmaceutical companies.

Anderson Cooper and CNN gave Sanjay Gupta a pass.

It sure appears to me that CNN and Gupta are on a collision course filled with competing values and competing loyalties, one that could affect future coverage. In his wrap-up of the interview, Cooper teased Gupta's upcoming coverage of the administration. The transcript says:

We should mention that Dr. Gupta's brush with life inside the Beltway drew him deeply into the health care debate. He's been devoting a lot of time to different proposals out there to fix it.

We're going to have reports all next week, a rare inside look at how the reform process is working; Sanjay Gupta inside the White House healing health care, all next week on "360."

For a couple of months we've had Sanjay Gupta in the running to be one of Obama's trusted allies. As surgeon general he would have had a key voice in the President's health care policy. While Gupta was, in essence, interviewing for the surgeon general's position, he was likely interviewing the President as well, not as a reporter but as a potential team player. He was bound to learn some insider information.

That's where the ethical challenges surface. To whom does Dr. Gupta owe loyalty? Can he serve the public with comprehensive reporting uninfluenced by his White House connections? Can he fairly report on an administration he almost joined? Can he fairly report on critics of Obama's health care plans?

Do CNN executives share these concerns about Gupta continuing to report on the Obama White House and the administration's health policy?

I asked CNN for comment, and heard back from Jennifer Dargan, PR director. She said in an e-mail, "Sanjay is a first-rate, independent journalist, with nearly 10 years of solid reporting experience. He will continue to cover health care issues and policy objectively, as he's always done."