Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas is the subject of a new HBO documentary.

From the Globe and Mail:

Come mid-November, a new American president will take office. As in the past, the job brings with it a world of responsibility - and, at some point, a showdown with Helen Thomas.

In the heady arena of U.S. politics, Thomas is the first lady of the White House press corps. Or to some, The Godmother.

Thomas has been covering presidents since John F. Kennedy's administration and she still commands respect in Washington circles - and the White House press briefing room. She's sparred with Nixon and parried with Reagan, and few reporters have gotten a twitchier squirm out of George W. Bush.

Footage of Bush's befuddled response to a Thomas question regarding the military buildup to the Iraq war provides the opening moments of the original HBO film Thank You, Mr. President (tomorrow, TMN at 9 p.m.), an affectionate retrospective of the veteran reporter who has spent most of her life on the front lines of U.S. political coverage.

The 2003 clip in question finds the outgoing commander-in-chief greatly flustered by Thomas's blunt query. His agitation is heightened by the fact she keeps pushing for an answer, which he obviously does not have.

Later in the program, there's a clip of Thomas pressing Bush in 2006 about lives lost in Iraq, which elicits more stammering and Bush-style doublespeak; in the days to follow, Thomas earned a public rebuke from the White House press secretary and backlash from right-wing media. Being labelled a "pinhead" by Bill O'Reilly of Fox News meant Thomas had made her point.

"Access to the president doesn't mean you're going to get the truth," says the veteran print reporter, now 88, in the program, which recalls her career as White House correspondent for the wire service United Press International and, more recently, the Hearst newspaper chain, which runs her once-weekly column.