Editing Accuracy in Media (section)

==History==
Accuracy in Media (AIM) was founded in 1969 by [[Reed Irvine]], an economist at the [[Federal Reserve Bank]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last1=Chapman|first1=Roger|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7e5nBwAAQBAJ|title=Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints and Voices|last2=Ciment|first2=James|date=March 17, 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317473503|pages=339}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Goss|first=Brian Michael|date=August 1, 2009|title=The Left-Media's Stranglehold|journal=Journalism Studies|volume=10|issue=4|pages=455–473|doi=10.1080/14616700902783895|s2cid=143114959|issn=1461-670X}}</ref> In order to reduce what they perceive as bias in media reporting, AIM works to "investigate complaints, take proven cases to top media officials, seek corrections and mobilize public pressure to bring about remedial action."<ref name="Kaufman">{{Cite news|last=Kaufman|first=Michael T.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/19/us/reed-irvine-82-the-founder-of-a-media-criticism-group-dies.html|title=Reed Irvine, 82, the Founder of a Media Criticism Group, Dies|date=2004-11-19|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-04-28|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Reed Irvine and then-executive secretary Abraham Kalish sent letters to the editors of many newspapers and magazines they identified as skewed, calling out slanted news stories. If the newspaper rejected the letter, AIM bought space and printed the letter in that newspaper. Beginning in 1975, Accuracy in Media began purchasing participating interests in major media companies, allowing Irvine to attend annual shareholder meetings. He used these opportunities to express the AIM's concerns to the various companies' owners. Reed's son, Don, chairs the organization. Don Irvine referred to his father as a "die-hard anti-communist."<ref name="Irvine">[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58852-2004Nov17.html Obituary of Reed Irvine, 82], ''The Washington Post'', November 18, 2004.</ref> In 1990, Irvine was mentioned by Walter Goodman of ''[[The New York Times]]'' for "his efforts to put pressure on networks and advertisers to crack down on reporters to whom he takes exception do not mark him as an enthusiast of unfettered expression."<ref name="NYTFairnessAndAccuracy">{{cite news|last1=Goodman|first1=Walter|title=TV VIEW; Let's Be Frank About Fairness And Accuracy|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/17/arts/tv-view-let-s-be-frank-about-fairness-and-accuracy.html?mcubz=0|access-date=October 2, 2017|work=The New York Times|date=June 17, 1990}}</ref> Following Irvine's death in 2004, an editorial in the ''[[Columbia Journalism Review]]'' said that "[Irvine] was stone blind to his own prejudices, and he could be scurrilous and unfair in his attacks, but he knew something about our major media" and credited Irvine in part for the rise of the popular conservative view that the American media is imbued with a liberal bias.<ref name="CJRDefiningBias">{{cite magazine|last1=Hoyt|first1=Mike|title=Defining Bias Downward: Holding Political Power to Account Is Not Some Liberal Plot|url=http://archives.cjr.org/behind_the_news/defining_bias_downward_holding.php|access-date=October 2, 2017|magazine=Columbia Journalism Review|date=January 5, 2005}}</ref>

According to ''[[The Washington Post]]'', while Irvine worked at the [[Federal Reserve]], co-workers he would eat lunch with often "complained that conservative points of view were not adequately reported in the media." In his way of changing this, Irvine formed AIM.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Media Watchdog Reed Irvine, 82 (washingtonpost.com)|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58852-2004Nov17.html|access-date=2020-06-30|website=washingtonpost.com}}</ref>

It is also said that [[Reed Irvine]] was urged to start the organization after the 1968 [[Democratic National Convention]] because he thought the mainstream media networks were overly sympathetic to antiwar protestors.<ref name="Kaufman" />

Membership to AIM grew significantly when [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] was president, topping 40,000 members with a budget of $1.5 million. As the organization grew, [[Reed Irvine]] was also a shareholder in media companies. During a shareholder meeting for [[TBS (American TV channel)|TBS]] in 1989, Irvine said at the meeting that conservative leaning organizations had a difficult time getting their views presented on [[TBS (American TV channel)|TBS]] and this was not the case for more liberal leaning groups.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Ap|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/22/arts/media-critic-accuses-turner-s-tbs-of-bias.html|title=Media Critic Accuses Turner's TBS of Bias|date=1989-07-22|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-04-28|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

{{as of|April 2020|post=,}} the current president of AIM is Adam Guillette.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aim.org/aim-column/aim-hires-adam-guillette-as-new-president/|title=AIM Hires Adam Guillette as New President|date=2019-10-18|website=Accuracy in Media|language=en|access-date=2020-04-28|archive-date=September 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919185317/https://www.aim.org/aim-column/aim-hires-adam-guillette-as-new-president/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Funding===
AIM's income in 1971 was $5,000.<ref name=":1" /> By the early 1980s, it was $1.5&nbsp;million.<ref name=":1" /> In 2009, AIM received $500,000 in contributions.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=[[Deciding What's True: The Rise of Political Fact-Checking in American Journalism]]|last=Graves|first=Lucas|date=2016|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231542227|pages=45}}</ref>

At least eight separate oil companies are known to have been contributors in the early 80s. Only three donors are given by name: the Allied Educational Foundation (founded and chaired by [[George Barasch]]), [[Shelby Cullom Davis]], and billionaire [[Richard Mellon Scaife]]. Scaife gave $2.2&nbsp;million to Accuracy in Media between 1977 and 1998.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/05/02/decades-of-contributions-to-conservatism/711c6621-3c29-401d-8d53-990cc298f020/|title=Decades of Contributions to Conservatism|year=1999|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> AIM has been funded by [[Exxon]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qbVcIc8w6w4C&q=Oreskes+haydn+Climate+Change+Denial|title=Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand|last=Washington|first=Haydn|date=May 13, 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136530043|pages=159}}</ref>