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

“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to effectively dismiss 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 disregard toward the press, for the media – and for the facts.

The Context

The US president’s dismissal of the murder of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA concluded in a 2021 report had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to conclude the homicide – 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 former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, governments were unified in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted sanctions and travel restrictions in 2021 over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

White House Remarks

Critics of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was on display at the White House was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful point for a leader who has made little secret of his disdain for the facts – or for the media. Trump has smeared reporters (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the question about Khashoggi at the media event “fake news”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has forced established media out of the official briefing group for declining to use terminology of his preference, and he has gutted funding for vital news services at domestically and vital independent media abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an environment in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that 2024 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 bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this more evident than in Israel, which is accountable for the killing of over two hundred journalists in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The impact on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our rights to know and on our liberty to live freely and securely.

This week, CPJ gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. The statement there is the identical as my message for the president: such events may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.