{"id":182309,"date":"2017-08-01T21:23:20","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T18:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/tr\/content\/?p=182309"},"modified":"2022-11-27T17:01:53","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T14:01:53","slug":"how-azerbaijans-paid-agents-manipulate-the-american-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2017\/08\/01\/how-azerbaijans-paid-agents-manipulate-the-american-media\/","title":{"rendered":"How Azerbaijan\u2019s Paid Agents Manipulate the American Media"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For several years, dozens of articles have appeared in U.S., Israeli, and European newspapers, lavishly praising Azerbaijan and severely criticizing Armenia. Most of these articles are written by non-Azeris who are handsomely compensated by the Azeri government.<\/span><\/div>\n
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One man, Casey Michel, had the courage to expose this scam in a lengthy article titled, \u201cAzerbaijan\u2019s American Media Manipulation.\u201d He had done extensive research, linking several of these pro-Azeri authors to Azerbaijan\u2019s well-financed lobbying activities.<\/span><\/div>\n
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In an attempt \u201cto whitewash its dictatorial image\u2026 the autocratic government of Ilham Aliyev has unleashed spin-doctors, duped reporters, and led one of the most brazen pushes to abuse American lobbying loopholes of any foreign government,\u201d Michel wrote.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Some of these hired pens sing the praises of Azerbaijan and mislead the general public by acting as if they are uninvolved third parties who are making objective assessments of the situation in Azerbaijan. Whereas, in reality, these writers are on the payroll of the Azeri regime or its state energy company, SOCAR. Here are some concrete examples:<\/span><\/div>\n
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Former Cong. Dan Burton, who was paid to serve as head of the Azerbaijan America Alliance, wrote at least three op-ed articles in the Washington Post, Washington Times, and Daily Caller on what a wonderful country Azerbaijan is, without disclosing that he was on Baku\u2019s payroll! Fortunately, Cong. Burton quit his job, when Azerbaijan stopped paying him!<\/span><\/div>\n
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Michel then mentions Jason Katz as the most prolific pro-Azerbaijan propagandist, the founder of The Tool Shed Group, a U.S. lobbying firm hired by Azerbaijan. Katz wrote a series of articles in Huffington Post in praise of Azerbaijan\u2019s \u201cdemocracy,\u201d claiming the country to be \u201ca progressive, cosmopolitan, open, secular and Western-oriented society.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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To his credit, Katz initially disclosed in these articles that he was a \u201csenior advisor to the Republic of Azerbaijan.\u201d However, shortly thereafter, Katz began to conceal his relationship with the Azeri government. Since late 2013, Katz wrote at least nine articles in praise of the Aliyev regime, four of them for Roll Call, and three for The Hill, in one of them foolishly claiming that \u201cthe U.S. can learn much from a nation like Azerbaijan,\u201d Michel reported. Katz also wrote an outrageous article in National Review early in 2014, \u201cequating the Armenian government with the Taliban!\u201d In all nine articles, Katz had failed to mention that his firm, The Tool Shed Group, was being paid by Azerbaijan!<\/span><\/div>\n
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Michel went to great lengths to expose Katz by contacting various publications and informing them about Katz’s lobbying efforts on behalf of Azerbaijan. Most of these publications, then added corrections after Katz\u2019s articles were published, noting his close affiliation with Azerbaijan.<\/span><\/div>\n
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For example, the National Review, after hearing from Michel, put a new note under Katz\u2019s name, disclosing that Katz is a consultant to foreign states, \u201cincluding the Azerbaijani government.\u201d The Hill also inserted an editor\u2019s note after Katz\u2019s name, revealing that \u201cKatz is paid to provide strategic advice to Azerbaijan. This note was added after Katz\u2019s foreign agent registration was brought to the attention of The Hill.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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These articles not only mislead the American readers about Azerbaijan, but cause a further damage when reprinted in the Azeri press as evidence of the high regard Americans had for Azerbaijan!<\/span><\/div>\n
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Switching tactics, Katz\u2019s wife, Mallory Moss, began to write similar anti-Armenian articles on the Artsakh (Karabagh) conflict in mid-2014. She wrote one for the Capitol Weekly and two for the Hill, under the guise of being a nurse! Michel discovered that Mallory Moss had registered under her name the website BakuWoman.com which was reregistered under the name of Jason Katz. \u201cThe registrant organization listed for Moss was The Tool Shed Group,\u201d Michel reported. Mallory Moss\u2019s op-eds should have been filed under the Foreign Agent Registration Act of the U.S. Justice Department! When Michel reported to The Hill about Mallory Moss\u2019s association with Jason Katz and The Tool Shed Group, The Hill added an editor\u2019s note under her article: \u201cA firm that is paid to provide strategic advice to Azerbaijan submitted this op-ed. The note was added after information was brought to the attention of The Hill.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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Finally, Michel mentions the case of Prof. Brenda Shaffer who had written pro-Azerbaijani articles for the New York Times and the Washington Post. In both cases, she had failed to mention that she was an advisor or consultant to Azerbaijan\u2019s state-run oil company, SOCAR. Subsequently, both newspapers published an editor\u2019s note exposing her financial relationship with SOCAR!<\/span><\/div>\n
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There are many others who are hired by Azerbaijan to write propaganda pieces in the Western media on behalf of the \u201cCaspian kleptocracy\u201d as Michel describes the country. Unfortunately, we are unable to name these propagandists without a solid evidence of their payoffs from Azerbaijan!<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 For several years, dozens of articles have appeared in U.S., Israeli, and European newspapers, lavishly praising Azerbaijan and severely criticizing Armenia. Most of these articles are written by non-Azeris who are handsomely compensated by the Azeri government. \u00a0 One man, Casey Michel, had the courage to expose this scam in a lengthy article titled, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4101,"featured_media":774085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harut-sassounian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}