18 Nov 2004 Reed Irvine, RIP: Funeral for a Friend

NCPPR executive director David W. Almasi eulogizes conservative movement icon Reed Irvine:

The conservative movement is mourning the loss of Reed Irvine, the founder and long-time chairman of Accuracy in Media. Irvine was a thorn in the side of the liberal media for decades, and it will be a long time — if ever — before the aches he caused them go away.

It wasn’t until this year’s forged document fiasco that many people realized the extent of the contempt CBS News and Dan Rather hold for conservatives. Not so with Irvine. He was said CBS was “Rather Biased” and urged the network to “Dump Dan” back in the 1980s.

He was wise to Peter Arnett long before CNN fired the veteran reporter for his sloppy and politically-motivated reporting. During the Gulf War, Irvine led a protest in front of CNN’s Washington headquarters where someone dressed as Saddam Hussein manipulated another person representing Arnett like a marionette.

I remember it well. I was the one in the Hussein mask.

Reed Irvine gave me my first full-time job in Washington. I was fresh out of college and looking to make my way in the conservative movement. For two years, I edited Campus Report (to complement AIM, Irvine founded Accuracy in Academia to fight political bias in college classrooms).

Irvine should have been taking it easy. He was retired from a career as a government economist, and others his age were kicking back and watching the world go by. Irvine instead dedicated himself to fighting for conservative values and against communist expansion. He worked well into the night — every night — editing his columns and newsletters that exposed media misdeeds and their detrimental effects on our society.

He founded AIM, AIA, and the Conservative Leadership Conference and oversaw the Council for the Defense of Freedom and the monthly McDowell luncheon group. He kept light shining on underreported issues like the strange death of Vince Foster, the threat of Soviet intervention around the world, global warming, acid rain and countless other issues.

He was 82 at the time of his death, but had the heart and the stamina of someone half his age even in his final years. He will be missed.