🔗 Share this article

“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most infamous journalist killing of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for journalists, for the media – and for the facts.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of well-known reporter 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 ordered the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to conclude the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was approved at the top echelons. An inquiry led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, nations were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US imposed sanctions and travel restrictions in that year over the killing, although it stopped short of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the visit. But what was evident at the White House was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president honor Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter the facts – 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, the president said: “Many individuals didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a fresh and shameful low for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the truth – or for the media. Trump has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for large amounts 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 language of his choosing, and he has slashed funding for vital news services at home and crucial free press internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an environment in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people disliked that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising 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 persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for journalist killings has established a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are actually able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Israel, which is accountable for the deaths of over two hundred journalists in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The impact on society is profound. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and securely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its yearly global journalism honors. 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 cease.