Trump's Dismissal on Journalist's Murder Signals a Disturbing Development.

“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is probably the most notorious journalist killing of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for journalists, for journalism – and for the facts.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of prominent journalist the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA found in a 2021 report had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, governments were unified in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted penalties and visa bans in that year over the killing, although it stopped short of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was on display at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did the president fete the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter the facts – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, he asserted when asked, was unaware about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a new and abject point for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. Trump has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the question about the journalist at the media event “false information”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), sued news outlets for eye-watering sums 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 choosing, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at home and vital independent media abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“many individuals disliked that person”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the deadliest year on file for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been documenting this information: a ongoing neglect to hold those responsible for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are literally able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

In no place is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 200 journalists in the recent period.

Societal Impact

The effect on society is deep. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our rights to know and on our liberty to live freely and securely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. The statement there is the identical as my one for Trump: such events may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.