British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was the target of the media’s latest attempt to discredit a politician with an alleged mental illness. Seems some blogger heard someone at a party who said that the PM avoids foods that  should not be eaten when taking certain antidepressants (I don’t know what food that is but I hope it’s not ice cream).

It didn’t take long after this hearsay to hit the blog-o-sphere for BBC interviewer Andrew Marr to take an interest. With no other evidence than the word of a single blogger, Marr went on live television in Britain last Sunday and asked Brown if he takes “prescription painkillers or pills to get through” – as in “do you take antidepressants?”

Ambush journalism wrapped around stigma. Lovely. I have been a journalist for nearly 30 years. A responsible journalist would have investigated this rumor before going on national television and ambushing a major world leader with such an ignorant, stilted question.

Brown quickly denied taking antidepressants. But what if he is? So what? Winston Churchill suffered terribly from depression, which he called his “black dog.” Historians believe Abraham Lincoln suffered from depression. Both did a fine job and neither had antidepressants to lighten their burden. Is depression more debilitating than polio, which put FDR in a wheelchair? Have we made no progress since 1972 when George McGovern selected Thomas Eagleton to be his running mate, only to drop him after Eagleton disclosed he had been treated for mental illness?

Why is it that seeking help for physical illnesses – diabetes, cancer, hypertension – considered wise but seeking help for mental illness scandalous? Will we ever move beyond this prejudice? Journalists, such as Marr, stoke the stigma when they ask inflammatory questions which imply that those of us with mental illness aren’t fit to handle responsibility greater than brushing our teeth.

We are fit and responsible. We also are smart enough to know when we need help and humble enough to ask for it, even in the face of overwhelming ignorance. Aren’t those characteristics we want in our leaders?