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"Let's face facts: the American media is in an abusive relationship with Obama."

So marvelously said Dennis Miller on Fox New's the O'Reilly Factor in a discussion about the Internal Revenue Service scandal Wednesday (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

Bernie Goldberg, a 12-time Emmy winning journalist and commentator for Fox News, appeared on the O'Reilly Factor Tuesday night to discuss the biased reporting that the liberal media is employing in their coverage of the IRS scandal, particularly how the media are desperate to spin the IRS scandal in the best possible light by holding it's likely not directed from the top echelons of the Obama White House. [Link to the audio here]

Goldberg held out as an example a recent discussion between CNN's Candy Crowley and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) about "whether it's political," referring, of course, to the recent IRS scandal of targeting conservative organizations while protecting liberal groups. Goldberg quipped that Crowley's question was tantamount to "asking a scientist, is it possible that the Earth is flat?" It can't simply be rogue IRS agents and there has to be "something much bigger going on" in the situation, the veteran political journalist insisted, going on to note the media double standard in handling scandals like this depending on who's in the White House.

All three networks on Wednesday played a promotional video of Anthony Weiner, hyping the mayoral run of the "comeback kid." On Good Morning America, former Democratic operative George Stephanopoulos showed an extended clip of the campaign video. [See video below. MP3 audio here.] But Stephanopoulos (who in his previous career defended Bill Clinton's against sexual scandals) didn't get into much detail over the Weiner's failings. Reporter Jon Karl simply explained that the ex-Congressman tweeted out "lewd pictures" of himself. 

CBS This Morning and NBC's Today both, briefly, featured blurred pictures of the aforementioned photos. But the Today segment included a network graphic that speculated, "Comeback kid?" Journalist Maria Schiavocampo offered more details than ABC. She described Weiner's fall as a "sexting scandal," but parroted, "but now he says he's ready to put the controversy behind him and get back into politics."

Jay Leno on Tuesday continued his humorous attacks on the current White House resident.

The NBC Tonight Show host concluded a series of opening monologue jokes targeting the administration saying, “That's why President Obama holds press conferences: not to explain what's going on, to find out what's going on” (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

On Tuesday's Fox & Friends, Fox News contributor and Emmy-winning journalist Juan Williams accused the Obama Justice Department of having "criminalized journalism" by investigating Fox News correspondent James Rosen. Williams claimed that such probing by the administration “makes it difficult for journalists to do business” and posed the question, “How do you do journalism if you are treated as a criminal for asking for information?” [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

This revelation, of course, comes close on the heels of the DOJ seizing phone and email records of several Associated Press employees during a leak investigation concerning a CIA operation to foil a terror bomb plot. However, in the Rosen case, the Justice Department has “specifically gone after Rosen and Fox as co-conspirators in the case,” according to Williams, whereas “there is no such listing of AP as a co-conspirator.” In all his years of reporting, Williams said that this particular case against Rosen “stands out in a bright way to me” because it shows that the administration is trying to criminalize certain types of reporting.