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“Stuff occurs.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off 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 contempt for the press, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The US president’s dismissal of the murder of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a recent assessment had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the journalist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to conclude the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old journalist was drugged and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed penalties and travel restrictions in 2021 over the killing, although it stopped short of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the regime had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did the president fete Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter history – and then blamed the victim. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, was unaware about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services determined four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a leader who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. Trump has smeared reporters (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the media event “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), sued media organizations for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has pressured established media out of the White House press pool for declining to use language of his preference, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at home and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“many individuals disliked that person”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the deadliest year on file for journalists in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this information: a ongoing neglect to hold those responsible for reporter murders has established a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are literally 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 accountable for the killing of over two hundred media workers in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The effect on the public is profound. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to live freely and safely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its yearly global journalism honors. The statement there is the identical as my message for the president: these things may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.