LONDON (Reuters) - The BBC faced a rash of criticism on Monday after one of its interviewers asked Gordon Brown if he took pills and prescription painkillers.
In a television interview, one of the BBC's politics presenters told Brown that if he were an American president, a lot more would be known about his medical history.
"Let me ask you about something else which everybody has been talking about," interviewer Andrew Marr said on Sunday."...A lot of people in this country use prescription painkillers and pills to help them get through. Are you one of those people?"
An irritated Brown tried to shrug off the question, saying he did not think it was appropriate, but Marr was persistent."It's a fair question, I think," he insisted.
Brown did not answer the question but spoke about the pain he had endured since losing his sight in one eye and having impaired vision in the other due to a boyhood rugby accident."Although I have problems with my eyes and it has been very difficult over the years, I think people understand that you can do a job and you can work hard," Brown said, his tone tetchy.
"I think it would be a terrible, terrible indictment of our political system if you thought that because someone had this medical issue, they couldn't do the job."Downing Street was angered by Marr's questioning, which they said was drawn from gossip and innuendo on right-wing blogs. Rumours about the prime minister's health had already been dismissed as baseless in recent weeks, officials said.
"What we've got is a lot of right-wing extremists out there on the Internet and the blogosphere trying to sort of spew out these smears and slurs," said Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, who is effectively Brown's number two."What many people find very surprising is that the BBC of all people should pick up from the blogosphere and give these slurs and smears this credence" he told Sky News.
The interview was supposed to set Brown and Labour up for their annual conference this week, with Labour behind in polls and expected to lose the next election, due by June 2010.Newspaper commentators were broadly critical of the questioning, regarding it as unseemly and irrelevant. The Guardian described Marr as a "jug-eared viper" and the "tabloidesque Torquemada of the telly."
A BBC spokesman defended the questioning, saying it was about legitimate issues to do with Brown's health.(Editing by Steve Addison)
