Accuracy in Media has awarded the 2008 Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award to IWP adjunct professor Dr. Lee Edwards for his service as chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
The Victims of Communism Memorial foundation achieved a significant goal in 2007: the creation of aninternational memorial in Washington to the more than 100 million victims of communism. Modeled after the statue created by Chinese students in 1989 before the Tiananmen Square massacre, the memoral stands at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue NW and New Jersey Avenue NW. At the Memorial's dedication, President George W. Bush observed that "at this sacred place, communism's unknown victims will be consecrated to history and remembered forever."
The Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award, established in 2005, is given to those making outstanding contributions to the practice of journalism by independently reporting on news that was misreported or ignored by the mainstream press.
Dr. Edwards is widely regarded as the chief historian of the American conservative movement, having written more than 15 books about the leading individuals and institutions of American conservatism, including biographies of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater. He serves as Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at The Heritage Foundation. At IWP, Dr. Edwards teaches "Mass Media in World Politics."