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“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That was enough for the US president to brush off what is arguably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward journalists, for the media – and for the facts.

Background Details

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the killing of prominent journalist the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the CIA concluded in a 2021 report had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the journalist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, nations were in agreement in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States enacted sanctions and visa bans in 2021 over the murder, although it refrained of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating 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 worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president fete the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then blamed the victim. The crown prince, he asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s intelligence services determined four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject low for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. He has defamed reporters (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the media event “fake news”), berated them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), sued media organizations for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has pressured established media out of the White House press pool for declining to use terminology of his preference, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at home and vital independent media internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an environment in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“many individuals disliked that person”).

It is no surprise 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 data: a ongoing neglect to hold those responsible for reporter murders has established a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are literally able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 200 journalists in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The effect on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to exist without fear and securely.

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its annual International Press Freedom awards. The statement there is the identical as my one for Trump: these things may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.