Penn State Prof. Scolds Marriott For Having Fox News On Its TVs

A while back, we posted a piece about why, at the time, CNN was played on so many airport televisions. It made for a lot of (happily, respectful) discussion about left-wing vs. right-wing TV stations and their appropriateness at public airports (although CNN Airport news was intentionally politically neutral, its parent company, CNN, is decidedly left-leaning).

In early 2021, we reported that, after broadcasting across the country for 30 years, the CNN Airport Network was permanently going off the air. That post also got a lot of comments, but most were not respectful (read: “outrage” against Liberals and left-leaning TV stations. I guess they didn’t read our rules about comments on YMMV) and were not approved.

Of course, Conservatives don’t hold all the rights to having “outrage.” The shoe can be on the other foot, as well. Case in point…

Professor Michael E. Mann is a Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science and Director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State. He was in New York to accept the Leo Szilard Lectureship Award from the American Physical Society (the award recognizes “the accomplishments of physicists whose work promotes the bettering of society in sectors such as the environment, arms control and science policy”).

In advance of this honor, Prof. Mann was staying at a Marriott property in Manhattan. He took to Twitter this past Saturday afternoon because the hotel’s fitness center was, as he called it, “fixed” on Fox News. He said the hotel manager claimed they couldn’t change the channel; that it’s set by corporate, and he found it offensive.

The Fitness center at your NYC Times Square hotel has TV fixed on ‘Fox News’ – a network that promotes anti-American, pro-Russian propaganda. The manager of the facility says he can’t change the channel, it is set by you. This is deeply offensive.

By Sunday morning, he had not gotten a reply from Marriott, so he wrote again, this time getting Marriot Bonvoy involved:

Hi @MarriottBonvoy — Don’t want to pull rank, but I’ve got more followers than you,” the professor of atmospheric science wrote. “And the tweet now has 3k+ likes, 130k+ impressions and 10k+ engagements. And a large number of folks have said they’re no longer staying at @Marriott full stop. A response would be appropriate.

(BTW, I checked on the numbers, so you don’t have to. Prof. Mann has 206.8K followers. Marriott Bonvoy has 199.2K followers. Marriott Hotels, BTW, has 330K followers).

By early Sunday afternoon, it looked like Prof. Mann’s gripe with the chain had been resolved. The manager of the Marriott hotel in question personally reached out to him and corrected what the hotel’s policy was, which he said did not stipulate the TVs remain locked on the Fox News.

This was followed up with:

And all was right with the world.

Frankly, I think complaining about a TV station in the hotel’s gym is going a little overboard, regardless of what side of the political fence you lean on. I mean, that’s what ear buds are for, right? But as the good blog says, Your Mileage May Vary.

Feature Photo (cropped): Steam Pipe Trunk Distribution Venue / license

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