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“Things happen.” Just two words. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is probably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward the press, for the media – and for the facts.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the killing 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 2021 report had ordered the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the only ones to determine the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

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 the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital 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 White House was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did the president honor the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote history – and then blamed the deceased. Prince Mohammed, he asserted when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies determined four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject low for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the facts – or for the media. He has defamed reporters (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the question about the journalist at the Saudi press conference “false information”), berated them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to be shut down.

He has forced established media out of the official briefing group for declining to use language of his preference, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at domestically and crucial free press internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an environment in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people didn’t like that person”).

It is no surprise that that year was the deadliest year on record for the press in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this information: a persistent failure to hold those responsible for reporter murders has created a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are literally able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

In no place is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of over two hundred journalists in the recent period.

Societal Impact

The impact 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.

On Thursday, CPJ gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. The statement at the event is the same as my one for the president: such events may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.