Guests: Former CBS correspondent Deborah Potter & Fox News analyst Liz Trotta

"The report on CBS News and 'Memogate' is out. Four producers have been fired and Dan Rather reprimanded over a '60 Minutes' report that used questionable documents to imply that President Bush received special treatment in the National Guard. The primary producer on the story, Mary Mapes, apparently was in close contact with the Kerry campaign during the preparation of the story. That can never happen in legitimate journalism. If political campaigns can work with powerful news operations to denigrate an opponent, we're in big trouble. As Talking Points has said all along, Dan Rather did not knowingly allow false documents to be aired--he simply relied on a woman with whom he had worked for years, and got hammered. CBS News is embarrassed and has lost credibility. Hopefully all journalists will understand what happened here and never do anything like it."

Transcript: FoxNews.com

Former CBS News correspondent Deborah Potter contended CBS shot itself in the foot by mishandling the story, especially after it aired. "CBS circled the wagons," Potter told The Factor. "They denied anything was wrong and defended their story for two weeks. CBS has a black eye, and they have some cleaning up to do." Fox News analyst Liz Trotta, who also worked at CBS, blamed the network's deeply ingrained liberal culture. "This was partisan bias, a hate Bush move. And they will not address this. Mapes is a psychopathic liar. And Dan Rather's career is over." The Factor agreed CBS was guilty of journalistic malpractice. "What if Kerry had won the election, and then we found out two months later that CBS News was in bed with the Kerry campaign digging up dirt about George W. Bush? That's a danger to the democracy."

Guests: Meteorologist Joe Bastardi

Heavy rains and flooding have ravaged parts of California and killed at least ten people. "It's a very serious situation," meteorologist Joe Bastardi told The Factor. "The weather is wild in a lot of places. We had snow in the Arabian Peninsula, and are about to get a big storm in Ireland. This has happened before. We are in a cycle similar to the late 40's and 50's and 60's, and it's not over yet."

Guest: Andrew Apostolou, Senior Fellow, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies

The UN has released partial findings from its internal investigation into the oil-for-food scandal. Foreign policy expert Andrew Apostolou summarized. "There was inadequate oversight, plenty of waste, and ample opportunity for abuse," Apostolou said. "And there were people who took advantage of those opportunities for abuse." Apostolou issued a harsh condemnation of the UN and its bureaucracy. "The UN didn't check a single contract for the sale of Iraqi oil, nor a single contract for the import of humanitarian goods. We have a United Nations office that spent $560 million on administrative costs, and yet there was inadequate supervision."

Guest: Conservative columnist Ann Coulter

Even though Americans traditionally give more foreign aid than any other nation, some liberal pundits claim the US has been "stingy" with aid to tsunami victims. Conservative columnist Ann Coulter has accused some on the left of consistently displaying their dislike for America. "There are a lot of ways to calculate aid. Liberals always come up with methods that put America at the bottom," Coulter claimed. "Their behavior is always consistent with someone who does not love America." The Factor argued that some critics are motivated by economics and class warfare. "They want more taxation of the wealthy; they want to redistribute income. They want to prove that the government needs more money so it can take more money."

Guest: Film critic & conservative talk host Michael Medved

Michael Medved is a film critic, columnist, and committed conservative. His new book examines his transformation from liberal Democrat to conservative Republican, which began in the mid-70's. "I had bought the assumptions of the peace movement," Medved said, "that you could stop bad guys by putting daisies into their rifles. That doesn't work as well as a well-equipped tank battalion. It was shameful that we betrayed our allies in Vietnam and allowed the holocaust and slaughter in Cambodia. We stabbed these people in the back, and it was disgusting." Medved said there is a direct link between his politics and his religion. "I'm not a neo-con, I'm a theo-con. My conservatism is directly related to my own growth religiously."

Guest: Former CIA agent Lindsay Moran

There is an ongoing debate about the best way to get information from suspected terrorists. Former CIA agent Lindsay Moran, who has written a book about her experiences as a spy expressed her opinion. "Any seasoned interrogator will make the argument that you're likely to get faulty information when you rely on torture. To use torture or harsh means as a way of getting intelligence is not effective. You get more bees with honey." The Factor pointed out some interrogators hold an opposite view: "We had an interrogator tell us that when you step up the pressure on these people, physically and mentally, they crack."