"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.