The President's Dismissal regarding Journalist's Murder Represents a Disturbing Development.

“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That was enough for the US president to brush off what is probably the most infamous journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for the press, for journalism – and for the facts.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the CIA found in a 2021 report had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the only ones to conclude the murder – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was approved at the top echelons. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed sanctions and visa bans in that year over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the regime had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump honor the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, was unaware about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a new and abject low for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the facts – or for the media. Trump has defamed reporters (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the question about the journalist at the media event “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has forced veteran news services out of the official briefing group for declining to use language of his choosing, and he has gutted funding for essential public media at home and vital independent media abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an atmosphere in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“a lot of people didn’t like that person”).

It is no surprise that that year was the most lethal year on file for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been tracking this information: a ongoing neglect to hold those responsible for journalist killings has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are literally able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 200 media workers in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The effect on the public is deep. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our rights to know and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its annual International Press Freedom awards. My message at the event is the same as my message for Trump: these things may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.