🔗 Share this article

“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is probably the most notorious journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for the press, for the media – and for the facts.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the CIA found in a 2021 report had ordered the abduction and murder of the journalist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the murder – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a short time, governments were in agreement in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States enacted penalties and travel restrictions in 2021 over the killing, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the regime had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump honor the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s spy agencies determined four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Established Conduct

This represents a fresh and shameful low for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the truth – 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 connection with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the official briefing group for refusing to use language of his preference, and he has slashed financial support for essential public media at home and vital independent media abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has created 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 insignificant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the deadliest 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 those who murder reporters are actually able to get away with murder and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Israel, which is responsible for the killing of more than 200 media workers in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The impact on society is deep. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

This week, CPJ gathers for its annual International Press Freedom awards. The statement there is the same as my message for Trump: these things may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.