Reed Irvine, one of the early watchdogs of the liberal media, died Tuesday. At 82, he had been keeping an eye on Big Media since he founded Accuracy in Media in the 1960s. He's not a household name, but he planted some of the first seeds for the revolt against legacy media that has become so loud this election season all around the blogosphere and the nation.

Mr. Irvine was truly a man ahead of his time. Heck, he started a campaign to "Can Dan" Rather in the late 80s. Visionary!

On a personal note, I remember Mr. Irvine fondly. As a journalism student at The University of Georgia just a couple years ago, I relied on AIM's research to refute my professors whenever possible. With AIM's help, I raised quite a ruckus in my "Race and Gender in the Media" class (Yes, there is such a thing.).

I once called Irvine my senior year to see if I could get a comment on a term paper I was writing about media bias. I left a message on his machine at 2 p.m., and never dreamed he would call back. But sure enough, come 5 p.m., Reed Irvine was on the other end of my cell phone, giving a lengthy interview to a 22-year-old with a term paper. That kind of accessibility is just one of many things the MSM could learn about from Mr. Irvine.

Here are a couple thoughts on Irvine from The Corner, Editor and Publisher, World Net Daily, and AIM co-worker Cliff Kinkaid.