The President's Casual Remarks on Journalist's Murder Signals a Disturbing Development.

“Stuff occurs.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is probably the most notorious journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for journalists, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of prominent journalist the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the CIA found in a 2021 report had ordered the abduction and murder of the journalist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to determine the murder – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old journalist was sedated and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

Global Reactions

For a short time, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US enacted sanctions and visa bans in that year over the killing, although it refrained of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was on display at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter the facts – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services determined four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Established Conduct

This represents a new and abject point for a leader 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 the journalist at the media event “false information”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he disapproves of to be shut down.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the official briefing group for refusing to use language of his choosing, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at home and crucial free press internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an environment in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“many individuals disliked that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that that year was the most lethal year on record for journalists in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been tracking this data: a persistent failure to bring to justice those responsible for reporter murders has created a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are literally able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this clearer than in Israel, which is responsible for the deaths of over two hundred journalists in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The impact on society is profound. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our liberty to exist without fear and safely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its annual International Press Freedom awards. My message at the event is the identical as my one for Trump: these things may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.