Not every documentary has to be fine journalism, of course, but, lacking claims to some aesthetic extra-reality ineffability, they should offer the basics.

That was my complaint about the Roman Polanski thing on HBO. You don’t have to agree with the facts. You can refute them. But not to mention them is tantamount to fraud.

Reviewers don’t always have the inclination or wherewithall to check them, however. Tom Shales does, in his review of a new HBO documentary on Helen Thomas:

What’s disappointing about Thomas, and troubling about the film, is her stridency in criticizing Israel and defending its enemies. Other than a passing reference to Thomas’s parents as having been Syrian immigrants, the film never hints at Thomas’s anti-Israeli rhetoric. In her writings, she’s already dismissed both John McCain and Barack Obama as being friendly to Israel and hostile to the Palestinians, “so the Israelis have no worries about the November election.”

Especially during the current administration, her “questions” at press briefings have been more like tirades, on one occasion prompting Tony Snow, the late journalist who was then press secretary, to respond, “Well, thank you for the Hezbollah view.” This would have been a pertinent and amusing clip to include in the film. Not for nothing was Thomas recently hailed as “the epitome of journalistic integrity for over 57 years”—by the Arab American News.

You don’t have to disagree with Thomas to acknowledge that it should have been in the film.

Taken with the Polanski issue, you have to wonder whether HBO’s highpowered (and press-friendly) documentaries chief, Sheila Nevins, should be held accountable to the declining standards in the division.

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Previously in Hitsville:

Roman Polanski: The Ick Factor
The Polanski whitewash continues
P.S. on ‘The Polanski whitewash’