Posted on 11/17/2004 3:17:53 PM PST by RatherBiased.com
Reed Irvine, the indefatigable founder of Accuracy in Media and one of the very first people to question the received wisdom of the news media, passed away last night. He was 82.
As a media critic, Reed Irvine was a trailblazer. While much of America was still blinded to the still fairly new notion that journalists could rise above their human nature and deliver the news without even a scintilla of bias, Irvine knew better.
Decades before the internet and talk radio, Reed Irvine set out to change that. Little did he know that his shoestring group Accuracy in Media would grow up and a legion of others would join in with him.
Today, there is an entire cottage industry devoted to criticizing the New York Times, something that Irvine made a name for himself doing back in the 1970s, showing up at shareholder meetings demanding fairness in the news and in his newsletter, the Media Monitor. He also did the same with the Washington Post, jokingly running for chairman of its board of directors.
Irvine was also one of the first to question the-then "Tiffany Network." His group, along with another started by then-North Carolina senator Jesse Helms and future media billionaire Ted Turner, started a drive back in the 1980s to "become Dan Rather's boss." Their tagline was "CBS: Rather Biased." Even today, they still sell that vintage design on the AIM site.
Reed Irvine was an American original who truly changed the course our country's history. He will be missed.
If you would like to express your condolences to Reed's family, you can send them to aimchairman@yahoo.com, the email address of his son, Don.
Other reactions from around the net:
AIM was the first email newsletter I subscribed to in 1998 when I got my first "puter and got on the internet after being put on house rest ( arrest ahhahaha ) .. he wrote the best articles, always truthful and good but he never suffered fools and called them for what they were.....
Yep, Rest in Peace Good Man, until we all meet again
He was a true pioneer. May he rest in peace!
What a loss this is for his family, the nation, and for truth! May God rest his soul, and comfort his family.
Americans have much in which to be grateful to this man. RIP Reed Irvine. Your legacy will live on.
Sorry to hear that. He was one of the first to give us hope that things may change for the good.
R.I.P my man...
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I remember meeting REED IRVINE at the Judicial Watch 5th Anniversary Conference 5 years ago in Pasadena CA.
I very much appreciated his keen interest in the Downing of TWA Flight 800. A Jetliner that just happened to go down the night before CRAIG LIVINGSTONE was to either Plead the 5th or name HILLARY, under oath on National TV, as the one who hired him to get her those FBI Files on Repubican Members of Congress.
TWA Flight 800 goes down =
CRAIG LIVINGSTONE's National TV Appearnce before the U.S. Senate gets abruptly cancelled.
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God bless him. A real hero who spent his life performing the necessary but extremely unpleasant job of shoveling sh*t out of the stables of the MSM.
Reading of his passing, has brought tears to my eyes. His passing makes me want to stand, in respect and gratitude. There goes to Him, a very fine man. Heaven is enriched, and rejoicing with us in the legacy Reid Irvine gave to us.
Bump.
What you said, I agree.
Another of the great ones passes. It was very hard to be a Conservative in the 60's and 70's but was even harder to be a Conservative on the firing line like Reed was.
Bump.
May he rest in peace!
Epitaph: He stood for truth and gave the other guys a hard time.
Reed Irvine was a great American.
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