Did the lounge/lobby/restaurant refuse to change the channel when you asked them to? I've been in lounge/lobby/restaurants that have ESPN, Fox News on, & they've always changed the channel to something else when I've requested it.

Marriott doesn't have a tv channel policy for its franchisees (well, maybe other than no porn in public places ). I've been in multiple properties domestic & int'l over the years & what the TV is turned to truly varies.

FWIW - I don't consider Fox News on the public hotel tvs (regardless of chain) to be anymore "shocking" than if I see it on the public tvs at airports, airline lounges, etc, & don't extrapolate that the airports & airlines are conservative. Some would find it 'shocking' to see CNN on the tvs. Goes both ways. I normally watch CNN, but if a hotel is willing to switch from ESPN or Fox to CNN or, if they have multiple tvs, keep one on sports & another on news shows I'm good. Hotels cater to all types. While I'm not a ESPN watcher (except during playoffs), others might not be HGTV watchers.

I think the default newspaper wise for Marriott in the US is WSJ, USAT, & the local paper (NYTimes if in NYC, LATimes if in LA - or Orange County Register if in OC, Vegas paper in Vegas, etc). Int'l I see USAToday, WSJ, Int'l Financial Times, & a variety of local papers. Weekends, whether US or int'l, they'll have the local paper since some of the others are M-F publications.

Re: the Mormon bible in the room. Other hotel chains have the Gideon bible. If someone is interested in reading the bible (whichever version & whichever chain), it's there for them. If they're not, they can ignore it.

Cheers.