For quite some time, news on the FOX Network has been perceived - rightly or wrongly, depending who you listen to - as a conservative mouthpiece in broadcasting.

The news agency recently signed a five-year agreement with Clear Channel Communications, Inc., the nation's largest radio station operator by leaps and bounds.

Starting next year, FOX will provide more than 100 Clear Channel Radio news and talk stations with a five-minute, top-of-the-hour newscast, nightly news and around-the-clock national coverage. In return, FOX News Radio will gain access to news produced by San Antonio -based Clear Channel.

If all options are exercised, the deal could bring the FOX News Radio affiliation to more than 500 Clear Channel stations by mid-2005, the companies said.

Clear Channel currently operates 28 stations in Michigan, including stations in Detroit and Grand Rapids. The company runs 1,200 stations total and has more than 110 million viewers and listeners every week. Until now, Clear Channel has been getting its national news feed from a variety of providers. We wish they still would.

In this agreement, the flaw is in Clear Channel, not FOX. Clear Channel is the largest broadcasting company in the nation and a highly influential part of the Federal Communications Commission. For it to broadcast just one voice, and offer its listeners one source of news on 100 of its stations limits listeners and is not doing any favors to the marketplace of ideas.

People should have the option of getting news from anywhere they want. In some markets, most stations are owned by Clear Channel. The only option listeners in those markets have is to listen or not listen. Essentially, some markets will face an opaque ultimatum - get news from FOX, or avoid the news entirely. In the best interest of media consumers everywhere, choice is what should dictate the market - not lucrative contracts that promote media-ownership.