The President's Casual Remarks regarding Journalist's Murder Represents a New Low.

“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took 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 dismissal of the killing of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA found in a 2021 report had ordered the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to conclude the murder – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was drugged 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, nations were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US imposed penalties and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the government had roundly condemned the visit. But what was evident at the presidential residence was worse than could have been imagined. 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 spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject low for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. He has defamed reporters (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced 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 be shut down.

He has forced veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use language of his choosing, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at home and crucial free press internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered 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 (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“many individuals didn’t like that person”).

It is unsurprising 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 data: a persistent failure to hold those responsible for reporter murders 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 more evident than in Israel, which is accountable for the killing of over two hundred journalists in the recent period.

Societal Impact

The impact on the public is profound. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our rights to know and on our freedom to live freely and safely.

This week, CPJ gathers for its annual global journalism honors. My message at the event is the same as my message for Trump: such events may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.