Reed Irvine was a tireless letter-to-the-editor writer. "He knew the issues. He would pound away. But he wasn't a scary type of person. He was well-reasoned, and he won begrudging respect from other journalists," Don Irvine said.

On the other hand, he acknowledges, his father and AIM have also been characterized as conspiracy theorists. Reed Irvine pushed hard for more questioning about the death of Vince Foster, deputy White House counsel in the Clinton administration, and about the reasons for the 1996 explosion of TWA Flight 800, which he alleged was caused by rocket fire.

Reed Irvine bought stock in the big media companies, which enabled him to attend shareholder meetings at places like his nemesis, the New York Times. Twenty years ago, Reed took Don to one of those shareholder meetings at the Washington Post.

"I introduced myself to (former publisher) Kay Graham, and she looked at me and said, "Oh God, do you have any children?"

Graham sensed that an Accuracy in Media dynasty was already in progress.

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E-MAIL: jarvik@desnews.com