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“Things happen.” Just two words. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is arguably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward journalists, for the media – and for the facts.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference 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 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the only ones to determine the murder – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and dismembered – was signed off at the highest levels. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were unified in their criticism 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 gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the regime had roundly condemned the visit. But what was on display at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did the president honor Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, he asserted when asked, was unaware about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services determined four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject point for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the facts – or for the media. He has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the media event “fake news”), scolded them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the official briefing group for refusing to use terminology of his preference, and he has gutted funding for vital news services at domestically and vital independent media internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an environment in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people didn’t like that person”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on record for the press in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this information: a persistent failure to bring to justice those responsible for reporter murders has created a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are actually able to get away with murder and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Israel, which is accountable for the deaths of more than 200 media workers in the recent period.

Societal Impact

The effect on the public is profound. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our rights to know and on our freedom to exist without fear and securely.

This week, CPJ gathers for its annual International Press Freedom awards. My message at the event is the identical as my message for the president: these things may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.