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“Stuff occurs.” Just two words. That was enough for the US president to effectively dismiss what is probably the most notorious journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward the press, for journalism – and for the truth.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence found in a recent assessment had ordered the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the only ones to conclude the homicide – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was drugged and dismembered – was signed off at the highest levels. An investigation led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were unified in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted penalties and visa bans in 2021 over the killing, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the government had strongly criticized the visit. But what was evident at the presidential residence was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. Prince Mohammed, he asserted when asked, was unaware about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s intelligence services determined four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a leader who has made little secret of his disdain for the facts – or for the press. Trump has defamed reporters (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the question about the journalist at the media event “fake news”), scolded them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), sued news outlets for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has pressured established media out of the official briefing group for refusing to use language of his preference, and he has slashed funding for essential public media 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 US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the deadliest year on file for journalists in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this information: a persistent failure to hold those responsible for reporter murders has created a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the killing of more than 200 media workers in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The effect on the public is profound. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to live freely and safely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its annual International Press Freedom awards. My message at the event is the identical as my one for the president: these things may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.