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“Stuff occurs.” 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 past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward journalists, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing 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 journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to conclude the homicide – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was drugged and dismembered – was approved at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a short time, nations were in agreement in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted penalties and visa bans in 2021 over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that redemption.

White House Remarks

Opponents 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 the president fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. Prince Mohammed, Trump claimed when asked, was unaware about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful point for a president 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 public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he disapproves of to be shut down.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use terminology of his preference, and he has gutted financial support for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media internationally.

Broader Implications

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

It is no surprise that that year was the most lethal year on file for journalists in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been documenting this information: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice 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 continue to do so.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Israel, which is responsible for the deaths of over two hundred media workers in the recent period.

Societal Impact

The effect on the public is profound. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our liberty to exist without fear and safely.

On Thursday, CPJ gathers for its annual global journalism honors. My message there is the same as my one for the president: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.