The President's Casual Remarks regarding Khashoggi Killing Represents a Disturbing Development.

“Stuff occurs.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably the most notorious journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward the press, for the media – and for the facts.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the killing of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA found in a recent assessment had ordered the abduction and murder of the journalist in that year. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to conclude the murder – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was drugged and dismembered – was approved at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US enacted sanctions and travel restrictions in that year over the killing, although it refrained of sanctioning 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.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the government had roundly condemned the visit. But what was evident at the presidential residence 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. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, was unaware about the killing – in clear opposition to what his country’s own spy agencies concluded four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Established Conduct

This marks a new and abject low for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the truth – or for the press. Trump has smeared reporters (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “false information”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against media organizations for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has pressured established media out of the White House press pool for refusing to use language of his choosing, and he has gutted financial support for vital news services at domestically and crucial free press internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an atmosphere in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that that year was the deadliest year on file for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been documenting this information: a persistent failure to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 200 journalists in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The effect on society is deep. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our freedom to exist without fear and securely.

This week, CPJ meets for its annual global journalism honors. The statement there is the same as my message for Trump: such events may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.