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“Stuff occurs.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most infamous 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 facts.

Background Details

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the CIA concluded in a recent assessment had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the late journalist was drugged and dismembered – was signed off at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, nations were in agreement in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted penalties and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that redemption.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the regime had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was on display at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump honor Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in clear opposition to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful point for a president who has made little secret of his disdain for the truth – or for the media. He has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the question about the journalist at the media event “false information”), berated them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he disapproves of to be shut down.

He has forced established media out of the White House press pool for refusing to use terminology of his choosing, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

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

It is no surprise that that year was the most lethal year on record for the press in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this information: a ongoing neglect to hold those accountable for reporter murders has created a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

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

Societal Impact

The impact on the public is profound. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to live freely and securely.

On Thursday, CPJ gathers for its annual International Press Freedom awards. The statement there is the identical as my message for Trump: such events may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.