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“Things happen.” A mere phrase. 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 journalists, for journalism – and for the facts.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissal of the killing of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence found in a 2021 report had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the journalist in that year. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the murder – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the late journalist was sedated and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were unified in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted penalties and travel restrictions in 2021 over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the government had strongly criticized the visit. But what was evident at the White House was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did the president honor Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter history – and then pointed fingers at the victim. Prince Mohammed, Trump claimed when asked, was unaware about the killing – in clear opposition to what his country’s own spy agencies determined four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the truth – or for the media. He has defamed reporters (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the question about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), 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 media organizations 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 declining to use terminology of his choosing, and he has slashed funding for vital news services at domestically and vital independent media internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an environment in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that person”).

It is no surprise that that year was the most lethal year on record for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been documenting 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 escape punishment and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of over two hundred 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 entitlement to information and on our liberty to live freely and safely.

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message there is the identical as my message for Trump: these things may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.