Wow. When it rains, it pours for Google (GOOG).  First, Viacom (VIAB) decided to sue them for copyright infringement last month. Shortly after that, News Corp (NWS) and GE’s (GE) NBC Universal said they were teaming up to create a new online video joint venture.

Sam Zell, who’s buying newspaper publisher Tribune (TRB), said last week that newspaper companies need to be tougher with Google. Then, adding insult to inury, Viacom announced earlier this week that it would use the search technology from Google’s top rival Yahoo! (YHOO) on 33 of its broadband sites.

But despite all the Google-hating going on among big media, the company could always count on CBS (CBS) to be an ally. Until today, that is.

CBS announced on Thursday that it was starting something called the CBS Interactive Audience Network. The Tiffany Network will distribute several of its hit shows, including “CSI,” ”Survivor” and ”The Late Show with David Letterman,” to a plethora – Jefe, would you say I have a plethora of pinatas? – of online video sites. 

The list of partners reads like a veritable Who’s Who of important online video sites, including Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL, Microsoft’s (MSFT) MSN, CNET’s (CNET) TV.com and cable company Comcast (CMCSA), not to mention hot private online video and social networking companies like Brightcove, Veoh, Sling Media, Joost, Netvibes and Bebo. Time Warner, by the way, also owns CNNMoney.com and its AOL unit has invested in Brightcove.

What’s more, CBS went on to say that existing relationships with Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes, Amazon’s (AMZN) Unbox and Yahoo ”among many others” are also included in the deal. But nowhere is any mention made of either Google or YouTube…even though both Google Video and YouTube are also partners with CBS.

Google Video sells streams of episodes of “NCIS,” “CSI,” and ”Survivor.” In fact, CBS was the first major TV network to partner with Google when it launched Google Video in January 2006. CBS also partnered with YouTube to provide highlights of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

And it was only a few weeks ago that CBS CEO Les Moonves defended his company’s relationship with YouTube. Speaking at a Bear Stearns media conference in early March, Moonves said the following:

“We give YouTube our content. It is a huge promotional advantage,” Moonves said. “Some of my competitors vehemently disagree and say this is the beginning of what happened in the music business. I don’t agree with that. I think it’s better to be inside the tent.”

So why did CBS leave Google and YouTube out of Thursday’s press release, relegating them to the “many others” pile instead of mentioning them by name? Was this just an innocent slip or has Moonves decided to join many of his media peers in taking a tougher stance against Google?

Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive, said the release was intended to focus on new partners and that even though there was a tip of the hat to other existing partners, the omission of Google and YouTube was not meant as a slight.

Smith, who called me from an airport, said he was actually on the way to Mountain View, Calif. to meet with Google and that CBS looks forward to working with both Google and YouTube more often. Smith added that the list of existing partners in the release was not comprehensive. He pointed out that the release also didn’t include a reference to the online video partnership that Showtime, which CBS owns, has with News Corp.’s MySpace.

Still, I do find it curious that Google was left out of a big announcement that discussed just about all Google’s top rivals. If CBS is supposed to be one of Google’s big media friends, then Eric Schmidt and the rest of the Googlers really need to be a lot more wary of their media foes.