"The Spokesman-Review" is owned by Cowles Publishing Company. Cowles also owns KHQ-TV, a news station in Spokane. This makes "The Spokesman-Review" one of only a few family-owned newspapers in the United States. However, Cowles gets criticized for allegedly using its many news outlets to affect public opinion, and this makes "The Spokesman-Review" criticized for the same reasons. Once, something called "the River Park Square garage issue" occurred, in which Cowles could have made $20 million for affecting public opinion. An independent review by the Washington News Council showed that "The Spokesman-Review" did have bias on the issue.