Trump's Dismissal on Khashoggi Killing Represents a New Low.

“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is arguably the most notorious journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward the press, for journalism – and for the facts.

Background Details

The American leader’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 US intelligence concluded in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the murder – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was sedated and dismembered – was approved at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, governments were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed penalties and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Critics 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 the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject point for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. Trump has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “false information”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced 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 lose their licenses.

He has forced veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use language of his preference, and he has slashed financial support for vital news services at domestically and crucial free press abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an environment in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“many individuals didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the deadliest year on record for the press in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this data: a persistent failure to hold those responsible for journalist killings has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to get away with murder and so continue to do so.

In no place is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the killing of more than 200 media workers in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The impact on the public is deep. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our rights to know and on our liberty to live freely and safely.

On Thursday, CPJ gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message at the event is the identical as my message for Trump: these things may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.