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“Stuff occurs.” A mere phrase. That was enough for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably the most infamous journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward the press, for the media – and for the facts.

Background Details

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the killing of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA found in a recent assessment had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

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 59-year-old journalist was drugged and cut apart – was approved at the highest levels. An inquiry led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were in agreement in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The US enacted penalties and visa bans in that year over the murder, although it refrained of sanctioning the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the government had roundly condemned the visit. But what was evident at the White House was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter history – and then blamed the deceased. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, was unaware about the murder – in clear opposition to what his country’s own spy agencies concluded four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the truth – or for the press. He has defamed reporters (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question about Khashoggi at the media event “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against news outlets for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has forced veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use terminology of his preference, and he has gutted funding for essential public media at home and vital independent media internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“many individuals didn’t like that person”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the deadliest year on file for journalists in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been documenting this data: a persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are literally able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Israel, which is accountable for the deaths of over two hundred journalists in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The impact on the public is deep. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. 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 International Press Freedom awards. The statement at the event is the identical as my message for the president: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.