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“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That was enough for the US president to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most infamous 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 US president’s dismissal of the murder of prominent journalist 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 ordered the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old journalist was drugged and dismembered – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, nations were unified in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States imposed penalties and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the visit. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – 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, Trump 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 represents a fresh and shameful low for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the facts – or for the press. Trump has defamed journalists (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the question about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “false information”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued media organizations for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has forced veteran news services 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 domestically and crucial free press abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an environment in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been tracking this data: a persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for reporter murders has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually 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 more than 200 journalists in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The impact on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its annual global journalism honors. My message at the event is the identical as my one for the president: these things may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.