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“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is probably the most infamous journalist killing of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward journalists, for journalism – and for the truth.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence found in a recent assessment had ordered the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to conclude the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a short time, nations were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States enacted penalties and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing 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.

White House Remarks

Critics of the regime had strongly criticized the visit. But what was on display at the presidential residence was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies determined four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Established Conduct

This marks a new and abject low for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the truth – or for the media. Trump has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the question about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has forced veteran news services out of the official briefing group for declining to use terminology of his choosing, and he has gutted funding for essential public media at domestically and crucial free press internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an environment in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“many individuals disliked that person”).

It is no surprise that that year was the most lethal year on file for journalists in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been tracking this data: a persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for reporter murders has established a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are actually able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this more evident 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 the public is deep. Attacks on journalists 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.

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its annual global journalism honors. The statement at the event is the same as my one for the president: these things may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.