Ethical issues for CNN & Sanjay Gupta

Longtime Poynter Institute ethics guru Bob Steele – now a professor at DePauw University – published a column, “Dr. Sanjay Gupta Covers Obama’s Health Care Policies with Competing Loyalties.” Excerpts:

“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. …

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. …

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. …

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. …

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?”