🔗 Share this article The President's Dismissal regarding Journalist's Murder Signals a Disturbing Development. “Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is probably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for journalists, for journalism – and for the facts. The Context The US president’s dismissal of the killing of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA found in a 2021 report had ordered the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.) The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was drugged and cut apart – was signed off at the highest levels. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions. Global Reactions For a brief period, governments were in agreement in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The US enacted penalties and visa bans 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 ultimate sign of that redemption. White House Remarks Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did the president fete the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote history – and then pointed fingers at the victim. Prince Mohammed, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, things happen.” Pattern of Behavior This marks a fresh and shameful point for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the facts – or for the media. Trump has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist 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 convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against news outlets for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to be shut down. He has forced established media out of the official briefing group for declining to use terminology of his preference, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media abroad. Broader Implications All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that gentleman”). It is no surprise that 2024 was the deadliest year on file for journalists in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this information: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those accountable for reporter murders has established a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are literally able to escape punishment and so continue to do so. In no place is this more evident than in Israel, which is responsible for the killing of over two hundred media workers in the past two years. Societal Impact The impact on society is deep. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our liberty to live freely and securely. This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its yearly global journalism honors. My message at the event is the same as my message for the president: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.