>> in the news this week, media backlash on the justice department heats up. the obama administration taking hits for overreaching and infringing on freedom of the press in efforts to control leaks of information. the attorney general's actions and motives causing big concerns among journalists. eric holder invites the press for an off the record chat about the scandal. some members of the media accept. others say no way. >> what would be some of the reasons you might be at the white house? >> the easter egg roll with my kids. >> more details surface in the irs scandal over targeting conservative groups, raising even more questions about who was involved. but are the media covering the

story? a tea party favorite makes a big announcement about her future. the liberal media reacts as expected. and the president having some fun on the boardwalk with his pal, chris. >> they're cute together. >> jon: on the panel this week, writer and fox news contributor judy miller. media editor, noah, jim pinkerton, ellen ratner, and richard grenell, former spokesman for the last four u.s. ambassadors to the united nations. i'm jon scott, fox news watch is on right now. >> the free press is the most guarantee of liberty in this country. certainly the framers viewed it that way. that's why it's in the first amendment. it is there because it's often the press that holds the government accountable, forces them to take responsibility. and what's astonishing to me is

how the supporters of this president have served -- cast this aside. they belittled the attack on the media. you've even seen them say well, as long as people like rosen weren't prosecuted, it's really not an attack on the media. that's really facially ridiculous. >> jon: that's well-known law professor jonathan turley with his take on the scandal over the justice department, his editorial ran under this headline, in usa today, the attorney general holder must go. the scandal involves spying on journalists. he wrote that column for usa today, calling on holder to get fired for his attacks on the news media. judy, he called eric holder a sin eater. that's an 18th century religious term apparently. >> i had to look it up. >> jon: it refers to someone who shields the president from his responsibilities. is that what is going ton here?

>> i think there is an element of that and one at the national journal did an explainer of what off the record is as opposed to background, as opposed to -- look, this record, this meeting should have been on the record. there was no excuse for it being anything else because the sin is an egregious one. >> jon: rigorous nods of agreement from ellen rat mere. >> first of all, i want to give it to holder, eric holder, and the obama administration for single handedly uniting left and right journalists. >> jon: all right. >> you know, jonathan tully, who you just talked about, called it -- he called it the greatest attack on free press in decades in usa today. >> jon: noah, is that what's going on? we have a united front here? >> we did. i think this is probably a good gambit on the part of the doj that allows the press to be part

of this, to make them sort of somewhat culpable for what the doj was doing and allow them to bring them in and say, we're trying to work out this work relationship and now you're just as culpable as we are. >> jon: cover-up? >> i think noah makes a good point that holder is trying to do the clinch on them and bring them in. so for example, ellen and judy you may detect outrage. when i see the "washington post" outrage, in a story that kind of reads like somewhere in between new elections in the philippines or latest on fred terry, i don't detect any outrage. i think this is a manageable story from the white house point of view. when chris matthews, he said it was a kerr fluff, they're not feeling the pain at all. >> i don't know. i hear people angry. we called the justice department and asked them what radio people were invited to these meetings. they a, didn't return our calls. and two, so far as i can tell,

no radio people were invited. >> jon: noah, there is an msnbc contributor, michael eric dicen, who labeled eric holder the moses of our time. we've got a lot of religious references in the hour thus far. how does he get away with that statement? he's talking about the right wing effort to smear the attorney general. >> he's a law giver. he's the equivalent of handing down the laws from on high. yeah, it was a very stream of thought and consciousness kind of effort to exonerate eric holder and make him some sort of a victim here. and it was very handled handed and relatively correctly lampooned. >> jon: so rick, you spent a lot of time at the podium explaining how government works. there is a question as to whether or not eric holder committed perjury. he said he wasn't involved back on may 15, in any attempt or that he knew nothing about any attempt to prosecute anyone in the press for disclosure of

material. then later it comes out that he was the one who approved this court order, this request to investigate james rosen and even labeled him a co-conspirator. how does he get away with that? >> i'm not sure what people on the east coast are drinking because it's so obvious that he lied. if more people in washington who lied actually got fired, we would fix washington. those of us on the outside are looking at washington in the east coast and laughing. where are the journalists? now would be a good time for some real journalists to stand up and separate themselves from the group think that's going on. instead, though, we have jack schaefer, who is a media critic for reuters, who decides this week to attack james rosen and say, you know, he's a sloppy journalist who got caught. that's not what we need with journalists right now. we need a free press who are going to stand up and call this what it is.

>> i mentioned one who let the chips fall where they may, jordy yeager at the hill who said look, there does appear to be a discrepancy between what holder testified and what is the truth. and what the readers figure out. >> jon: then to say, well, we're going to charge him as a co-conspirator, we're going to tell the judge he's a co-conspirator, but we never intended to charge him criminally. >> right. we're just going to lie to the judge in order to get the search warrant that we want to seize his records. but we wouldn't think of prosecuting him. i mean, how is it that every journalist in the country -- >> don't forget that. >> pardon me? >> i'm saying multiple judges. >> well, it was a separate issue over whether or not the warrant ought to be made public. but the seizing of the records and perhaps we still don't know whether or not fox news was informed or not informed. there is a dispute over whose records were compromised.

we have so many questions that journalists have stopped asking. we're right in the middle of the scandal. >> jon: you a i lewded earlier to that off the record meeting that eric holder held with representatives of some news organization, many, including fox news, decided not to attend. ron fornay wrote a list of bullet points really about that meeting and here was one of his more interesting points. he says, the media's fundamental job is to shine light in the darkest corners of government. if we stand for anything, it's transparency and accountability. meeting secretly withholder borders on hypocrisy. >> you won't get any disagreement from me. it's interesting 'cause recent magazine talked about eric holder didn't think about having these meetings until he was sitting reading the "washington pos kitchen table and fine will he it sunk in that maybe the media was upset with him. >> and the president was also troubled and therefore, he asked

the attorney general to examine his own department and his own conduct and come up with recommendses for fixing the problem in 45 days. excuse me. what's going on here? >> jon: next on newswatch, the irs scandal is not going away. but the coverage seems to be. >> new details surface in the irs scandal over targeting conservative groups. but have the media moved on, ignoring the story in and when it comes to fact checking, do the checkers need checking? answers next on newswatch for his small business take theseags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjors small busiss earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth why settle for less? ahh, oh! [ garth ] great businesses deserve limited reward here's your wake up call. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. choose double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase every day. what's in your wallet? [ crows ]

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individuals. shulman visited the obama white house at least 157 times. that's more recorded visits than the most trusted members of the president's cabinet. the daily caller, jim, compiled that list of access records to the white house. shulman comes in with way more visits than even people like the secretary of health and human services or the secretary of the treasury. >> who knew about all those easter egg rolls. look, this story continues to grow. the news service, not known as a right wing outfit at all, just david lightman and kevin haul said we still don't know any of the criteria that were used, any of the procedures they used, they haven't answered any questions whatsoever on this and they are kind of riding it out. >> jon: you suggested that folks on the west coast are laughing at us east coasters. the question is, are there too many balls in the air here for journalists to cover them all?

stewart stevens in the daily beast noted there is an entire class of journalists so invested in a certain moral and ethical image of the president that its members are unable to entertain facts that might tarnish that image. >> i think jim is right. it's growing in some circles and not in others. over at nbc, you have mark murray, who is the senior political editor over there, he went on msnbc to say, this story is not going to last the summer. the irony about this is that mark murray, nbc senior political editor, he's married to an obama appointee. this obama appointee is now the chief of staff at the faa. so when you have someone at nbc kind of dismissing the story and trying to really push it off the front pages, you now know why, because he's getting pressure at

home. >> jon: noah, michael hiltsick of the la times wrote this in a piece titled, showing the irs some love after a witch hunt, the probe into the supposed targeting of conservative groups overlooks the fact that the tax agency does a good job despite its meager resources. >> right. other than that. other than a massive scandal. no, when it comes to -- shulman wasn't being 100% forthright, obviously. but what they're going to do and there was a piece in the atlanta today which said there was approveed 157 times, but he wasn't there closer to 11 times to implement the health care law. what they're going to do, media outlets that have an interest in making this scandal less damaging to the white house, is they're going to elevate that fact and throw that -- cast an air of doubt on that. and then rhodes was misquoted in e-mails and that was elevated as

a way to cast doubt on all the other charges that's going to be an effort to deemphasize the significance of this irs scandal which is very significant. >> jon: you don't think the irs, the visits, you don't think that's a problem? >> i don't think the visits are a problem because i don't think there were that many and it doesn't prove -- a lot of conservative pundits are saying this proves he talked to the president. however, speak of conservatives, i agree with brent bozelle when he said that overreach can be defined as the irs asking charities about the contents of their prayers. he's absolutely right about that. the kinds of questions they asked should be highlighted by the media. >> when you go to the white house, you don't have to meet with the president to meet somebody important. you can meet with a chief of staff and 100 other people who matter in this. look, this thing, this story cries out for context and tim carney in the washington examiner says the irs is a liberal, democratic government agency, like most bure yeahs are, represented by the national

treasure employee unions, liberal democratic union, what do you expect? how -- you need to think about that in terms of look, if all mistakes, quote, unquote, go in the direction of hurting the tee party and other groups, is this an accident or sort of the way things work when you ever an agency built in one direction? >> jim, in other directions, they've gone after liberal groups. the irs needs to be cleaned up in every way. >> jon: you'll have to save that thought. next up, a tea party favorite makes news. >> liberal media target michelle bachmann makes a big announcement about her future in politics. and the press pounces on the news. and together again, how did the press react to this jersey shore encounter? find out next on "newswatch" [thinking] is it that time? the son picks up the check? [thinking] i'm still working. he's retired.

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♪ >> the longest from serving as president of the united states for more than eight years. in my opinion, for eight years is also long enough for an individual to serve as a representative for a specific congressional district. >> jon: minnesota congresswoman michele bachmann delivering the news that she will not run nor reelection. nbc news called it a bombshell announcement and abc labeled it the democrats' target. media said she waser relevant to politics. some said she was fringe politician or celebrity politician. why can't they accept the announcement? >> every nbc news led with the news about miss bachmann. she will be back. if you watched the benghazi

hearings, she was in the background there with the families of the benghazi victims. she is talking to the russians and why the boston bombings were properly investigated. we haven't heard the last of her at all. >> jon: why was he is such a media target? >> because she got so much wrong. she couldn't open her mouth without making a mistake. it was a natural target. you couldn't not aim at it. and christopher actually wrote a tribute to her saying, she is should look straight in the camera. >> she became a target of especially the liberal media, who is next now that she is stepping down sheewlts was a liability to the republican party. mitt romgdz carried it 15 points and he carried bit a point and a half. it was significant. and every politician,

republicans unfortunately have to answer to every republican politician that does not reflect especially well on the party. she may be back because there is a possibly competitive senate race and al franken is up for his first reelection effort. she may challenge al franken. >> jon: it would be an interesting race. it would give you plenty of stories. >> i agree with you, atlantic wire's read there was into the surveilled article pointing that the republicans wanted her gone out of that particular district. >> jon: moving on to check the chickers. george mason's university center are for public affairs focused on politifax. it found that it related republican claims to be false or pants on fire three times more often than it rated democratic claims during the same period.

32% of republican claims were labeled as false compared with 11% of democratic claims. three to one margin. ridge, to you, do republicans bend the truth more than democrats or is there an agenda at work here? >> first of all you have to look at how many times they are looking at republican claims because politifax love to go after republicans every time they talk. if you have to look at the sample as to how many they are veamgt. the fact checker has become a whole industry here. it's not about checking fact, it's about pushing the agenda. we've seen fact checkers get it wrong constantly. many times it's when they select the facts to be checked, not so much of the fact that they are checking. >> jon: who is checking the checkers. one point out the pants

on fire page they have nine to one ratio or conservatives to democratic. three to one ratio they say that is biased, nine to one ratio that is more biased. >> jon: president obama and chris christie together again. o cook. i'm very excited about making the shrimp and lobster pot pie. we've never cooked anything like this before. [ male announcer ] introducing red lobster's seaside mimatch. combine any 2 of 7 exciting choices on one plate for just $12.99! like new cheddar bay shrimp lobster pot pie, and new parmesan crunch shrimp. plus salad and unlimited cheddabay biscuits. combine any 2 for just $12.99. [ stewart ] for the seaside mix & match, we're really mixing it up. there's just so many combinations to try. i'm stewart harrington, red lobster line cook, and i sea food differently. vietnam in 1972. [ all ] fort benning, georgia in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa auto insurance is often handed down

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wowing the crowd and playing games at point pleasant and perhaps it won't surprise you to know the media used encounter to take swipes. nbc called it a bromance, others in the press questioning the governor's politics. the critics saying the trip was an attempt to distract the media from scandals but dennis miller. >> they are cute together. it's like danny and sandy and of course. [ laughter ] >> olivia newton john but he looks plush, it's exciting. now, obama is like a girly man. look at chris, it's tough for him to get in the glory of anybody, and he has a staple gun and obama likes to figure out if he could

figure out to staple biden's mouth shut. >> jon: thanks to our panel. i'm jon scott. we'll see you again next week. fox news, extreme weather alert. a devastating situation in oklahoma again. deadly tornadoes a path of destruction killing nine people and injuring more than a hundred others. these numbers could rise. take a look at videotape. storm chaseers capturing the sights and fear as the tornadoes barreled in. >> we are going to have to move, brother. >> oh my god, back up. >> oh my god. >> it's righthe