GroupWatch: Profiles of U.S. Private Organizations and Churches, was compiled
by the Interhemispheric
Resource Center, Box 2178, Somerville, MA 88062. Check when each article
was last updated as much material is no longer current. This material is provided
as a source for historical research.
Jump directly to these subsections:
Accuracy In Media
Acronym/Code: AIM
Updated: 8/89
Categories:
Political, Educational
Background:
Reed Irvine founded AIM in 1969. At the time of AIM's founding, Irvine was an economist with the United States Federal Reserve Board. (2)
In the early days, AIM was basically the project
of Irvine and then-executive secretary Abraham Kalish. Kalish and Irvine would
send letters to the editors of many newspapers trying to make a name for themselves
as well as championing their "cause." If a letter was rejected,
AIM would buy space in that paper and print the letter. Beginning in 1975
AIM began purchasing stock in major news groups. Their purchases allowed Irvine
to attend the news agencies' annual meetings and make AIM's views known. (2)
AIM describes its purpose as the pursuit of
"Fairness, Balance and Accuracy in News Reporting."(7) Director
of communications, Bernard Yoh, says "People erroneously call us conservative
and right-wing. It really makes me sad because we try very hard to do everything
evenhandedly..."(2)
A survey of sources leaves little evidence
of that evenhandedness. AIM has intimate ties with many conservative causes.
As an example, AIM heads the list of groups attending the 1986 Conservative
Political Action Conference. (4) The group also has a predisposition to attack
journalists that write about and seem sympathetic to leftist and even centrist
movements. (2) AIM has a record of supporting Nicaraguan contra leaders such
as Jose Francisco Cardenal. AIM also supports the Committee for a Free Afghanistan,
a U.S. group that has backed the Afghan rebels beginning in 1981. (2)
AIM does not make use of "active journalists."
Says Irvine, "... the type of organization I had in mind would be representative
of and run by consumers of the journalistic product, not by the producers."(2)
AIM often uses pressure tactics to try to
change policies, but these tactics seem to fail more often than not, and AIM's
influence seems to be on the decrease. At one time they had 40,000 subscribers
to their newsletter; as of 1986 they had only 30,000. (2)
Funding:
Reed Irvine claims that 75 percent of AIM's
funding comes from contributers donating $100 or less. He is reluctant to
comment on where the rest of the money comes from. Says Irvine,"We do
not comment on AIM contributors, except for those who have given us permission
to publicize their gifts." Irvine names only three, the Allied Educational
Foundation, Shelby Cullom Davis, and Richard Mellon Scaife. Other groups that
have supported AIM include Mobil Oil, Union Carbide, and various power companies.
(2) In 1985 AIM recieved a $20,000 grant from the Adolph Coors Foundation
and $7,000 from the Texaco Philanthropic Foundation Inc. In 1986 they recieved
$5,000 from Texaco. (16) As of 1986 AIM'sbudget was $1.5 million a year. (2)
AIM is nonprofit and contributions to it are tax-deductible. (7)
Activities:
AIM publishes a bimonthly newsletter called
the AIM Report. Reed Irvine is the editor of this newsletter. AIM Report provides
Irvine a forum from which he can disseminate his political ideas. In these
newsletters Irvine often encourages subscribers to write to people or organizations
which he believes AIM can force to change policies. (8)
Reed Irvine has a weekly column that is published
in newspapers across the nation. AIM has a radio commentary show called Media
Monitor which airs five days a week. It also sponsors speakers as well as
holding conferences. (7)
Irvine often attends annual shareholder meetings
and makes his presence known. He has been described as very combative and
even rude during those encounters. He now has an annual private meeting with
the publisher of the New York Times. According to critics, Irvine's meetings
with publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger seem to be more of a way to spare other
shareholders from Irvine's outbursts than a sign that he is an important individual
whose views are to be heeded. Irvines charges are not dismissed out of hand;
they are researched. However, relates New York Times vice-chair Sydney Gruson,
"I never find any merit in their [AIM's] allegations."(2)
AIM's attacks on the media seem to have little
to do with actual misrepresentation or inaccuracies in media accounts. Instead,
Irvine and AIM are quick to attack groups that don't fit in the group's ideological
niche. Any group or individual, from left to centrist, are suspect in AIM's
eyes. Publisher of the Washington Post, Donald Graham, notes that Irvine tends
to "throw around accusations about people being communists."(2)
AIM's attacks on the person, instead of the
person's work, is obvious in several examples. At CBS's meetings Irvine often
attacks Walter Cronkite as a Soviet dupe. At a 1986 meeting,Irvine requested
that Cronkite be removed from the CBS board of directors for allegedly supporting
unilateral disarmament. (2) Another example of an attack on issue orientation
rather than journalistic merit is AIM's assualt against Helen Marmor. In 1983,
Marmor produced a documentary for NBC concerning the Russian Orthodox Church.
AIM contended that "it ignored the repressive religious policies of the
Soviet state." Marmor related that Irvine called her for an interview
and "... kept going back again and again to questions implying I was
hoodwinked or pro-Soviet in my attitudes..."(2)
Government Connections:
Several of AIM's board members have intelligence
backgrounds. During WWII Reed Irvine worked in Marine Intelligence; John McLean
was employed by the CIA; and Abraham Kalish taught communications at the Defense
Intelligence School. Bernard Yoh also has a history of intelligence and military
work. He is/was a professor of psychological warfare at the Air Force University
in Montgomery, Alabama. He was a hitman for the Shanghai police during the
Sino-Japanese war and organized the South Vietnamese counterinsurgency forces
during the Vietnam War. In the 1964 Brazilian coup, Yoh advised the Brazilian
generals. (2,6)
Elbridge Dubrow was a former ambassador to
Vietnam. David Lichtenstein was a senior attorney with the Federal Communications
Commission. (2,7)
Adm. Thomas H. Moorer was the former chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under president Richard Nixon. In that position
he had Naval Intelligence agents tap Henry Kissinger's phone and remove documents
from Nixon's desk. (20) He was also on the national advisory board of the
now-defunct Western Goals Foundation, a private domestic intelligence agency
founded by former Congressman Larry MacDonald in 1979. (20) Moorer is the
vice president of the American Security Council. (22)
Clare Booth Luce was a former ambassador to
Switzerland and former member of Congress. (2,7) She was also a member of
Ronald Reagan's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. (23)
Private Connections:
The Council for the Defense of Freedom (CDF)
has intimate ties with AIM. They share several board members. Reed Irvine,
Murray Baron, Wilson C. Lucom, and Bernard Yoh, for instance, are all on the
Board of Directors of CDF. Donald Irvine (Reed Irvine's son) is the treasurer
for CDF. Marx Lewis, chair of CDF, is on the National Advisory Board of AIM.
CDF operates out of AIM's offices as well. (1,2,7) The CDF publishes a right-wing
weekly called The Washington Inquirer. Irvine's column appears in it weekly.
Accuracy In Academia (AIA) was created by
AIM. Irvine is the head of AIA, but it is run by Les Csorba. AIA is also a
right-wing group that "monitors" what teachers teach on college
campuses. It is relatively weak and primarily attacks teachers that do not
teach AIA's view of reality. Midge Decter has called AIA "wrong headed
and harmful." In 1984, on a trip to El Salvador, Csorba praised Roberto
D'Aubuisson--said to have death squad links--and posed with government soldiers.
(5,9)
AIM has also supported the World Anti-Communist
League (WACL). In 1984, syndicated columnist Jack Anderson wrote articles
that exposed the death squad affiliations of the Latin American Anti-Communist
Confederation (CAL), a member of WACL. In response, the chairman of WACL,
retired U.S. Major General John K. Singlaub, enlisted the help of Reed Irvine.
In a letter dated January 30, 1984, to Irvine, Singlaub said that: "Any
help that you can give us in obtaining a retraction from Jack Anderson for
that part of his articles which link WACL with the death squad activity (in
El Salvador) will be greatly appreciated. If a retraction is not possible,
I would appreciate your assistance in neutralizing the negative impact of
these articles." No retraction was made according to the author of this
source. (11)
AIM has been a prominent supporter of the
Chilean Lobby in the past. The Chilean Lobby supported the military government
under Augusto Pinochet that came into power through a coup in 1973. (6)
Bernard Yoh contributes regularly to the Unification
Church publication Rising Tide and is a strong supporter of the Rev. Sun Myung
Moon and the South Korean government. (11)
Murray Baron is a member of the American Chilean
Council and was a member of the Committee of One Million Against the Admission
of Red China to the U. N. He was also the past president of Peace With Freedom
Foundation, a former CIA front involved in African labor affairs. (6)
Elbridge Dubrow is/was co-chair of the American
Security Council's National Strategy Committee. (6)
Eugene Lyons is the retired editor of Reader's
Digest. He is or was also a member of American Friends of Katangan Freedom
Fighters, American Chilean Council, Committee of One Million, Young Americans
for Freedom, and the American Jewish League Against Communism.
Ellen Garwood, heir to the Clayton Anderson
fortune, donated much of the amount needed to buy a helicopter for the Nicaraguan
contras. (12) She has also donated a large amount of money to their cause.
Midge Decter is exec dir of Committee for
the Free World.
This group holds conferences and exchanges
for "anticommunist intellectuals around the world." Former Assistant
Secretary of State Elliott Abrams is her son-in-law and Norman Podhoretz,
editor of the right-wing journal Commentary is her husband. (12,13) Decter
was also on the Board of Directors of the now defunct Nicaraguan Freedom Fund.
(14) Decter is a Heritage Foundation trustee, an Ethics and Public Policy
Center trustee, a Hudson Institute fellow, and an advisory board member of
The National Interest. (19)
Clare Booth Luce is a Dame of the Knights
of Malta. (15) She was a director of the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund, a fundraising
group set up in 1985 by the Washington Times, a paper owned by Rev. Sun Myung
Moon's Unification Church, to provide funds to the contras. (12,15,17,18)
Luce was on the Board of the Washington Times. (17) She also served with the
Coalition for Peace Through Strength (CPTS) and the Committee on the Present
Danger. (21,23)
William Simon is on the advisory committee
of AmeriCares and was on the national council of the Friends of the Democratic
Center in Central America (PRODEMCA). Simon was also the chair of the Nicaraguan
Freedom Fund and is a member of the Knights of Malta. (12,15,18)
Dr. Edward Teller was a member of the Committee
on the Present Danger as of 1983. The Committee is an anticommunist organization
which has advocated strict containment policies towards the Soviet Union.
(21) Teller also created the HBomb. (20) Teller was also on the advisory board
of the Western Goals Foundation and served with the CPTS. (20).
Eugene Wigner and General Lewis Walt were
both formerly on the advisory board of the Western Goals Foundation. (20)
Wigner, a physicist, recieved a $200,000 "Founders Award" from the
Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Wigner also served with the American Security Council's
Coalition for Peace Through Strength and on the board of trustees of Freedom
House. (21)
Shelby Cullom Davis is a trustee of the Heritage
Foundation. (19)
Misc:
AIM claims to be "Your Watchdog of News
Media."(7) Among the shows they monitor, however, are entertainment
programs which have a political twist. For instance, they often attack television
shows such as Miami Vice and television movies such as The Day After (a show
on the possible outcomes of nuclear war in the U.S. ). (2,10)
Comments:
U.S. Address: 1275 K Street N. W. , Suite
1150, Washington, DC 20005. (202) 371-6710.
Principals:
Officers: Reed Irvine, chair; Murray Baron,
pres; Wilson C. Lucom, vice-pres; Donald Irvine, exec sect; Jon Basil Utley,
tres; Milton Mitchell, gen counsel; John R. Van Evera, John K. McLean, Bernard
Yoh, communications dir;. Natl Advisory Board includes: Hon. Karl R. Bendetsen,
Hon. Shelby Cullom Davis (former ambassador), Hon. Elbridge Dubrow (former
ambassador), Ellen Garwood, Marx Lewis, Hon. Clare Boothe Luce, Eugene Lyons
(Reader's Digest), Adm. Thomas H. Moorer (ret, former chair, Joint Chiefs
of Staff), Hon. William E. Simon, Dr. Edward Teller, Dr. Eugene Wigner, Frank
Fusco, David Lichtenstein, David Martin, Charles A. Moser, Abraham Kalish,
Dr. Frederick Seitz, Adm. William C. Mott, Gen. Lewis W. Walt, J. L. Robertson.
(2,3,7), Midge Decter. (5)
Sources:
1. Letter from Ian MacKenzie, CDF, December
7, 1988.
2. Michael Massing, "The Rise and Decline
of Accuracy in Media," The Nation, September 13, 1986.
3. Washington 1988, Washington DC, Columbia
Books, 1988
4. Group Research Report, Vol 25, no 3, March
1986
5. Jon Wiener, "Reed Irvine Rides The
Paper Tiger," The Nation, April 5, 1986.
6. Victoria Bergesen, NACLA Report, Sept/Oct
1977.
7. AIM Brochure
8. AIM Report, February 1986.
9. Saul Landau, "Dress Rehearsal For
a Red Scare," The Nation, April 5, 1986.
10. AIM Report, November 1986.
11. Scott Anderson & Jon Lee Anderson,
Inside The League, New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1986.
12. The Resource Center, The New Right Humanitarians,
1986.
13. Midge Decter, "Governor Dukakis Is
Toying With Defense, and America," The New York Times, October 3, 1988.
14. Masthead of Nicaraguan Freedom Fund, from
1985 income tax return form 990.
15. Martin A. Lee, "Who are the Knights
of Malta?" Natl Catholic Reporter, October 11, 1983.
16. Foundation Grants Index, 16th & 17th
editions.
17. Francoise Hervet, "Knights of Darkness:
The Soveriegn Military Order of Malta," Covert Action Information Bulletin,
Winter, 1986.
18. Summary of La Prensa Grant Proposal, Natl
Endowment for Democracy, no date.
19. Gregg Easterbrook, "Ideas Move Nations,"
Atlantic Monthly, January 1986.
20. Elton Manzione, "The Private Spy
Agency," The National Reporter, Summer 1985.
21. Jerry W. Sanders, Peddlers of Crisis:
The Committee on the Present Danger and the Politics of Containment, (Boston,
MA: South End Press, 1983).
22. Peace Through Strength, ASC report, undated,
received December 15, 1988.
23. Thomas Bodenheimer and Robert Gould, ROLLBACK!
Right-Wing Power in U.S. Foreign Policy, (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1989).
