{"id":1252,"date":"2015-01-29T14:30:46","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T14:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1252"},"modified":"2015-01-30T14:08:30","modified_gmt":"2015-01-30T14:08:30","slug":"washington-times-hearts-azerbaijan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1252","title":{"rendered":"Washington Times hearts Azerbaijan"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ERIK WEMPLE*
\nThe Washington Post<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Erik<\/a>
Erik Wemple<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Open up the print version of today\u2019s Washington Times, and out pops a standalone section titled<\/a> \u201cAzerbaijan: A Quarter Century Since Restoring Independence, A Thriving U.S. Ally.\u201d In keeping with the tone of the title, the pieces inside argue why Azerbaijan \u201cmatters to the United States<\/a>\u201d (by Rep. Randy Weber); why Azerbaijan is a \u201cstrategic American ally that must receive our full support<\/a>\u201d (by Rep. Robert Aderholt); and how Azerbaijan\u2019s \u201crich history with Jewish settlers opened door to Israel alliance<\/a>\u201d (by The Washington Times).<\/p>\n

A tagline on the pullout\u2019s cover declares, \u201cA Special report Prepared By The Washington Times Advocacy Department.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah, that explains the boosterish tone. It\u2019s just a marketing thing. Surely the news and commentary sections of the same edition of the Washington Times wouldn\u2019t contain promotional content about Azerbaijan!<\/p>\n

That is, unless you count the piece on page B3 of today\u2019s Opinion section. It\u2019s titled \u201cWhy Azerbaijan is important to America and the free world.<\/a>\u201d Its concluding paragraph reads this way:<\/p>\n

Azerbaijan\u2019s swift rise is a testament to its leaders, its people and its strong partnership with the United States. As America and Azerbaijan continue to face common challenges to our increasingly common values and goals, U.S. officials should congratulate them for their total commitment to religious tolerance, freedom and democracy. America and the rest of the free world need more friends like Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

The piece\u2019s author? Dan Burton, who is identified at the foot of the piece as \u201ca former Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana. He served as chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.\u201d Perhaps because of space constraints, the italicized tagline omits another credential of Burton\u2019s: His status as the chairman of the Azerbaijan America Alliance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, over here<\/a>, there\u2019s real news concerning this wonderful country: \u201cAzerbaijan on Tuesday extended the pre-trial detention of a journalist critical of President Ilham Aliyev, prompting concern from Europe\u2019s democracy watchdog OSCE about \u2018rapidly deteriorating\u2019 media freedoms in the ex-Soviet state,\u201d reports Reuters.<\/p>\n

That journalist is Khadija Ismayilova of the Azeri branch of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty. According to this report<\/a>, Ismayilova was jailed over a charge of encouraging a man to commit suicide, which she denies; the man is still alive. \u201cAuthorities have consistently harassed<\/a> Ismayilova through smear campaigns<\/a>, prosecution, and travel bans<\/a>,\u201d according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).<\/p>\n

Also, meanwhile, the CPJ called Azerbaijan the \u201cleading jailer of journalists in Europe and Central Asia.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosemary Armao, an associate professor of Journalism\/Communication at the State University of New York at Albany and a friend of Ismayilova\u2019s, has written a letter to the Washington Times over the Burton column. \u201cAmerican aid ought to be on the side of democracy, freedom, and the Azeri people. It must be linked to reforms, greater transparency and, immediately, to the release of Khadija Ismayilova,\u201d writes Armao, who has worked with Ismayilova on the southeast Europe-based Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. \u201cShame on you Rep. Burton for penning a false and deceitful column.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armao tells the Erik Wemple Blog: \u201cThere are virtually no independent journalists left in Azerbaijan.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Solomon, editor and vice president for content and business development for the Washington Times, says the omission of Burton\u2019s role in the Azerbaijan America Alliance was a mistake. \u201cI wish we\u2019d caught it \u2014 my fault,\u201d says Solomon. When Solomon saw that the special pullout on Azerbaijan was coming down the pike, he thought that Burton could provide a \u201cgeostrategic perspective\u201d on the country\u2019s relationship with the United States in the commentary section of the newspaper. \u201cHe did almost a tutorial\u201d on the situation, says Solomon.<\/p>\n

The Washington Times has updated the story to include mention of Burton\u2019s connection to the alliance.<\/p>\n

Updated at 7:00 p.m. to note update and to include response from Solomon.<\/em><\/p>\n

*Erik Wemple writes the Erik Wemple blog, where he reports and opines on media organizations of all sorts.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ERIK WEMPLE* The Washington Post Open up the print version of today\u2019s Washington Times, and out pops a standalone section titled \u201cAzerbaijan: A Quarter [more >>>]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,7,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-azerbaijan","category-azerbaijan-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1255,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions\/1255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}