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“Stuff occurs.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is probably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for the press, for the media – and for the facts.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissal of the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a recent assessment had ordered the kidnap and killing of the journalist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to determine the murder – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and dismembered – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US enacted sanctions and visa bans in 2021 over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the visit. But what was evident at the White House was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter history – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, he claimed when asked, was unaware about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject point for a president who has made little secret of his disdain for the truth – or for the press. Trump has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), scolded them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship 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 pressured veteran news services out of the official briefing group for refusing to use language of his choosing, and he has slashed funding for vital news services at domestically and vital independent media abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an atmosphere in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“a lot of people disliked that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the deadliest year on file for journalists in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this information: a persistent failure to hold those accountable for journalist killings has created a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are actually able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Israel, which is accountable for the deaths of over two hundred media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The effect on society is deep. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our liberty to live freely and safely.

This week, 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 duty to make sure they do not.