🔗 Share this article

“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is probably the most infamous journalist killing of the last decade – 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 dismissal of the killing of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA concluded in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to conclude the murder – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the late journalist was drugged and cut apart – was approved at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States enacted penalties and travel restrictions in 2021 over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was on display at the presidential residence was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the facts – or for the press. He has defamed journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question about Khashoggi at the media event “fake news”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the official briefing group for refusing to use terminology of his preference, and he has gutted funding for vital news services at domestically and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that person”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on file for the press in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been tracking this data: a ongoing neglect to hold those responsible for reporter murders has created a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are actually 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 over two hundred journalists in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The effect on the public is profound. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to live freely and securely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its annual global journalism honors. The statement at the event is the same as my one for the president: these things may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.