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“Stuff occurs.” A mere phrase. That was enough for the US president to effectively dismiss what is probably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward the press, for journalism – and for the truth.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of prominent journalist the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a recent assessment had ordered the kidnap and killing of the journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was drugged and cut apart – was signed off at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a short time, governments were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed penalties and visa bans in 2021 over the murder, 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 rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was on display at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump honor Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a fresh and shameful point for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. Trump has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has pressured established media out of the official briefing group for declining to use terminology of his choosing, and he has gutted financial support for essential public media at home and vital independent media abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an environment in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that person”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on record for journalists in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been documenting this information: a persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for journalist killings has created a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are literally able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

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

Effect on Society

The impact on the public is profound. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our rights to know and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its yearly global journalism honors. The statement at the event is the same as my one for the president: these things may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.