Fox News and the Vardanyans: Alliance of disinformation, propaganda, and ideology Expert opinions on Caliber.Az

Fox News has published an article by David Vardanyan — the son of Ruben Vardanyan, a separatist and former “state minister of the NKR” who is currently on trial in Baku. It is rather strange that such a piece appeared in a fairly well-known American publication. Strange, because 99% of it consists of deliberate falsehoods. Just a few excerpts from what D. Vardanyan wrote are enough:

“Imagine entire communities forced to abandon homes, churches, and graves of ancestors in just 24 hours. Elderly neighbors collapsing on mountain roads while fleeing, children crying from hunger, and families separated forever. This nightmare became a reality for 120,000 Armenian Christians when Azerbaijan ethnically cleansed Nagorno-Karabakh, otherwise known as Artsakh. Among those paying the price is Ruben Vardanyan, who now sits in a prison cell for trying to help [...]

Today, however, my father, Ruben Vardanyan, has no voice to tell his story. For more than 550 days, he has been a political prisoner for simply advocating for the rights of Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to live in their ancestral homelands [...]  

He is not alone. Today, there are at least 23 other Armenian Christian prisoners illegally detained in Baku [...] As was the case 110 years ago, we remain hopeful that the United States will once again come to the aid of Armenians prosecuted for their nationality and faith today.”

Firstly, Ruben Vardanyan is by no means a political prisoner — he is charged with torture, mercenarism, violations of the laws and customs of war, terrorism, financing of terrorism, and other articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

Secondly, the portrayal of the Armenians’ voluntary departure from Karabakh is a complete fabrication from start to finish. The whole world had the opportunity to witness through television how it actually happened. It seems that no one but David Vardanyan noticed any people “collapsing on mountain roads” or “crying from hunger.” People were leaving mainly in their own vehicles or in buses, accompanied by trucks carrying their belongings.

The claim that “entire communities [are] forced to abandon homes” is also false. No one was forced to do anything. On the contrary, Armenians were offered the opportunity to stay in their homes and obtain Azerbaijani citizenship.

The emphasis on religious affiliation is yet another deliberate manipulation. Apart from Armenians, hundreds of thousands of Christians from various ethnic groups live in Azerbaijan, and so far, none of them have reported any religious persecution.

Overall, the content of the article is clear. What remains unclear is something else: why was a publication based on a series of fabrications and outright lies published on Fox News? What’s the motive here? Money? Something else?

Well-known American experts shared their views on the matter with Caliber.Az.

Political analyst Andrew Korybko stated that David Vardanyan’s article on Fox News grossly exaggerates what the ethnic Armenians supporting the separatists experienced during their voluntary departure from Azerbaijan in 2023.

“He is not only lobbying for the release of his father, who violated Azerbaijani laws through his separatist activities, but also trying to ensure that the United States maintains its Biden-era pivot towards Armenia at the expense of Azerbaijan’s legitimate national security interests.

By unfairly comparing the brief events of late 2023 to what some countries recognise as the ‘Armenian genocide’, Vardanyan is pushing for Trump to ramp up military-strategic cooperation with Armenia — a move that could destabilise the region and risk triggering a new war. His focus on the religious dimension of this now-resolved conflict completely ignores the fact that Azerbaijan has a thriving Christian community,” the expert noted.

According to him, some observers believe that the Trump administration supports elements of so-called “Christian nationalism,” a notion partly reinforced by the appointment of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has made no secret of his stance on such issues.

“Accordingly, they assume the administration as a whole can be influenced by appealing to these sentiments. This explains why Vardanyan attempted to frame the former conflict as religious rather than separatist.

The publication of his article on Fox News was a strategic move, given that top officials in the administration and other policymakers are believed to rely on this outlet for guidance. As for why it was published, it appears they sympathise with some of the messages associated with ‘Christian nationalism’, and they likely didn’t expect it to offend anyone within the administration. However, in the broader context, this article is unlikely to achieve the desired effect, since policy is not shaped around the agenda of a single ethno-separatist activist.

The Trump administration is currently reassessing many of the Biden-era policies it inherited, including those related to the South Caucasus. They have already made it clear that they will only take steps they sincerely believe serve American interests. There are arguments both for and against maintaining the U.S. pivot toward Armenia, but from the Trump team’s ‘America First’ perspective, it is not a top priority,” Korybko explained.

Geopolitical and security expert Irina Tsukerman, editor-in-chief of The Washington Outsider, stated that Fox News’s decision to publish David Vardanyan’s opinion piece—rife with distortions, pro-Armenian revisionism, and fabrications—reveals a deeper, strategic editorial pattern within the network. This pattern, she explained, has become more evident in the post-2016 media landscape, which is dominated by ideological tribalism, transactional geopolitics, and the laundering of disinformation under the guise of “diverse perspectives.”

“To understand why such material appeared on the Fox platform, it’s important to distinguish the network’s news division from its opinion section—the latter functioning less as a journalistic tool and more as a sandbox for ideological signalling, guest amplification, and strategic echo chamber maintenance. Fox News’s opinion section operates with minimal editorial oversight when it comes to foreign policy contributions, particularly from lesser-known international figures, lobbyists, or diaspora-affiliated individuals—as long as the argument is packaged in the right populist or anti-liberal wrapper.

Fox’s editorial model doesn’t always prioritise factual accuracy, but rather alignment with its overarching narrative. If a piece can be spun as anti-globalist, anti-liberal, or framed as part of a broader ‘clash of civilisations’ argument, then it has a place. Vardanyan’s article fits this template precisely. Although its content is pro-Russian and pro-Armenian, it can easily be adapted to resonate with the MAGA-aligned audience if couched in the language of ‘defending Christian minorities’, ‘civilisational allies’, or as an attack on George Soros, NATO, or U.S. interventionism,” the editor explained.

According to her, the deeper issue lies in the active infiltration of American right-wing media by pro-Russian and pro-Armenian influencers who understand that MAGA-aligned outlets have largely turned away from the traditional orthodoxy of U.S. foreign policy.

“In today’s populist landscape, the Kremlin and its proxies no longer need to win over liberals or the State Department elite; they only need to inject talking points into alternative ecosystems where distrust of U.S. alliances, admiration for ‘strongman’ leadership, and disdain for NATO thrive. Armenian diaspora networks and affiliated lobbying groups have historically been far more adept at penetrating U.S. political and media infrastructure than Azerbaijani or Central Asian actors. Their success rests on three main factors: cultural familiarity and presence in Hollywood and academia, which lends an air of Western respectability; the use of Christian victimhood language that resonates with Evangelical and conservative American audiences; and framing conflicts like Karabakh as part of a broader Western betrayal of ‘Judeo-Christian’ brethren—regardless of geopolitical realities.

Fox isn’t necessarily paid directly to publish such material; rather, the incentive lies in access to new content pipelines, viewer loyalty, and the appearance of openness to ‘non-mainstream’ narratives. But the real transactional game is playing out behind the scenes: diaspora lobbying groups, think tanks with donor clout, and intermediaries offer talking heads, exclusives, or access to events in exchange for platforming. It’s large-scale influence laundering—disinformation disguised as plausible opinion, published by a ‘respectable’ outlet, and then amplified through Telegram, X, and right-wing YouTube channels,” the analyst noted.

She is convinced that Vardanyan’s publication serves several strategic purposes.

“It allows Fox to signal its allegiance to traditional, nationalist ideas—even when those ideas are foreign and factually dubious.

It creates friction with the orthodoxies of U.S. foreign policy, fuelling deep scepticism within the MAGA base toward military alliances and support for Ukraine.

It offers low-cost content with ideological utility: no need for original reporting, just platformed narratives that drive engagement.

Fox News’ decision to publish Vardanyan’s article is not merely a journalistic oversight; it is the result of a deliberate ideological opening that enables foreign disinformation to blend with domestic populism. It reflects the porous boundaries between American media, lobbying interests, and foreign propaganda—especially when those interests intersect with MAGA-friendly tropes like anti-interventionism, Christian nationalism, and cultural nostalgia.

In short, Fox didn’t publish Vardanyan’s lies because they believed them. They published them because those lies were useful,” Tsukerman believes.