The President's Dismissal regarding Journalist's Murder Represents a New Low.

“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward journalists, for journalism – and for the facts.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the CIA found in a recent assessment had ordered the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was drugged and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a short time, nations were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States enacted sanctions and visa bans in that year over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that redemption.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the government had strongly criticized the visit. But what was on display at the presidential residence was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter the facts – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. Prince Mohammed, he asserted when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own spy agencies concluded four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a new and abject low for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. Trump has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question about Khashoggi at the media event “false information”), berated them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced 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 forced veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use terminology of his choosing, and he has slashed funding for vital news services at domestically and crucial free press abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an atmosphere in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“many individuals didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that that year was the most lethal year on file for the press in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this data: a ongoing neglect to hold those accountable for reporter murders has established a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are actually 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 journalists in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The effect on society is profound. Targeting reporters 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 meets for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. The statement there is the identical as my message for the president: such events may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.