Guest: Charles Krauthammer
"Surveys show that Americans depend on TV news for vital information; newspapers and magazines have lost a lot of influence. Enter Tom Brokaw, the former anchor of NBC Nightly News and a first-rate journalist. Recently he said this: 'When I talk to audiences, I say, "How many of you think that Bill O'Reilly is the most popular guy in news?" They'll all raise their hands, but Bill O'Reilly would finish dead last if he were on the evening news.' Dead last? Me? Mr. Brokaw is correct that the nightly news has a larger audience than cable news, how could it not? The three networks are on all television sets in America, but you have to pay for Fox News Channel. Nevertheless, we average between 4 and 5 million viewers a night. We asked Mr. Brokaw to appear tonight, but he declined. He has never been on The Factor because he knows that we know he has an agenda, and that agenda is power. Since the rise of cable news, network news has lost a lot of influence. Network reporters are generally strong, but it is the presentation that should concern alert Americans. For example, the website NewsBusters analyzed coverage of the Benghazi revelations last week as opposed to Michelle Obama's 50th birthday. They found that the First Lady's celebration was given twice as much airtime as the Benghazi story by the three networks. Without cable news, Americans would not be getting vital information. The network news broadcasts are pretty much all the same, they don't provide much analysis or perspective, and all three networks lean left. Tom Brokaw should be overjoyed that The Factor and cable news exist because we provide a voice you would never hear on the network news."

Fox News analyst Charles Krauthammer gave his reaction to the Memo. "The networks had a total monopoly on the news for almost two generations," Dr. K began, "and they were ideologically all the same. They don't like the fact that they no longer have a monopoly. Everybody knows that the network news all give it from the same perspective and Fox News has offered a new way to look at the news. That's why it has been so unbelievably successful and that's why there's some resentment from the mainstream media. The networks pretend to be non-ideological, which is not true, and they pretend to be superior, which is also not true." The Factor reiterated that network resentment has much to do with a loss of power: "When Brokaw, Jennings, and Rather were in the anchor chairs, they had all the power. Now there is no power at the network news - the anchors are good but they don't change the national debate."

Guest: Charles Krauthammer
Returning for an encore, Krauthammer endorsed President Obama's positive assessment of the NSA and its data collection. "People are human and you occasionally have a bad apple such as Snowden," he stated, "but I haven't heard of any egregious cases of someone being listened in on. I worry about a second 9/11, a chemical attack, a nuclear attack. You have to weigh these things. There is a chance of abuse, but I believe in the good faith of the people who are there. If you don't collect the dots, you can not connect the dots." Nevertheless, The Factor expressed concern about privacy: "If the NSA is compiling all this data, a guy like Snowden can go in there and say, 'I want to get O'Reilly or I want to get Krauthammer.' That worries me."

Guest: Lt. Col Ralph Peters
The Winter Olympics in Russia have been threatened by terrorists eager to cause mayhem on a world stage. The Factor asked FNC's Lt. Col. Ralph Peters for his analysis. "If I were going to the Olympics I would be very concerned," Peters said, "because the terrorists from the region are going to do everything they can to embarrass Putin. They only have to score one goal to get the gold medal for propaganda. Putting the Olympics in this terrorist heartland was an act of incredible hubris and arrogance." The Factor predicted that Putin will do everything in his considerable power to avoid terror attacks: "There is no due process in Russia and they're rounding up all these people if they can find them. Putin is as ruthless as they come."

Guest: John Stossel
The USA is spending billions to mitigate "climate change," which Fox Business host John Stossel considers a colossal waste. "Assuming man is doing this," he declared, "there's nothing we can do about it. Climate changes, it always has and it always will, and the long term trend is that the globe is gradually warming. Some good climatologists worry that man will make the warming worse with greenhouse gases, but that's not certain. We're spending hundreds of billions of dollars to pretend that we're doing something." The Factor put forth another reason why massive spending achieves nothing: "The Chinese are the greatest polluters on earth, but they are bound by no treaty. So even if we spend $3-trillion, they're not going to go along."

Guests: Lis Wiehl & Kimberly Guilfoyle
Legal aces Kimberly Guilfoyle and Lis Wiehl examined accusations that cops in Los Angeles ignored illegal drugs when they raided the home of pop star Justin Bieber last week. "TMZ reported that there were two cookie jars filled with pot," Wiehl said, "and that there were bongs everywhere. But I spoke with the cop who was in charge and he said the most bizarre thing was a basketball hoop in Bieber's living room. He says he did not see any drugs at all." Guilfoyle turned to Massachusetts, where a federal court has ruled that taxpayers must pay for a male inmate's sex change operation. "This is a huge decision and it could cost taxpayers up to $700,000 just in legal fees. The court ruled that it was cruel and unusual punishment to deny 'Michelle' a sex change, even though he is in jail for murdering his wife." The Factor concluded, "This is insane, this is a murderer, I don't care if he wants a sex change operation!"

Guest: Monica Crowley & Alan Colmes
Alan Colmes and Monica Crowley debated the proposition that left-leaning Americans tend to be more accepting of drug use and legalization. "There are some people on the libertarian right who believe in legalization," Crowley said, "but as a general proposition it is true. Democrats and President Obama are really losing the youth over ObamaCare and the NSA, so they're using pot as a way to get to them." Colmes downplayed the political aspect of legalization. "More independents want legalization, as do more libertarians. This is not a left-right issue as much as it's a libertarian vs. non-libertarian issue." The Factor again warned that legalization of marijuana could have dire consequences: "Every drug rehab counselor I've ever spoken with tells me that almost all of the youth cases of drug addiction began with marijuana."

Paul Taylor, Nutley, NJ: "O'Reilly, you are really losing it. You must be deaf and blind not to know that President Obama does not use the race card because TV outlets do it for him. If you oppose his policies, they call you racist."

Bruce Fraser, White Rock, Canada: "Bill, that segment refuted those who say Fox News is always against the president."

Stan Evans, Valley Village, CA: "It has taken me a while, but I am now a big fan of Watters, especially after he took on those big Hollywood phonies at Sundance."

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