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“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is probably the most notorious journalist killing of the last decade – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward journalists, for journalism – and for the truth.

Background Details

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the murder of prominent journalist the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing 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 that year. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the only ones to conclude the homicide – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was drugged and cut apart – was approved at the highest levels. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a short time, nations were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States imposed penalties and visa bans in 2021 over the killing, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the government had strongly criticized the visit. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, was unaware about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This marks a new and abject low for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. He has smeared reporters (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question about the journalist at the media event “fake news”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has pressured established media 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 home and crucial free press internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“many individuals disliked that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on file for the press in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this data: a persistent failure to bring to justice those responsible for reporter murders 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 clearer than in Israel, which is responsible for the killing of over two hundred journalists in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The impact on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our freedom to exist without fear and securely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its annual global journalism honors. My message there is the identical as my message for the president: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.