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“Stuff occurs.” Just two words. That was enough for the US president to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most infamous journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for the press, for journalism – and for the truth.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissal of the killing of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the CIA concluded in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder 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 occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and dismembered – was signed off at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US enacted penalties and visa bans in that year over the killing, 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 the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the government had strongly criticized the visit. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump fete the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter the facts – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, he claimed 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 didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This represents a new and abject point for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. Trump has smeared reporters (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question about the journalist 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 the convicted criminal), taken legal action against media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use language of his preference, and he has slashed financial support for essential public media at home and crucial free press internationally.

Broader Implications

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

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on file for journalists in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this information: a persistent failure to hold those accountable for journalist killings 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 Israel, which is responsible for the killing of over two hundred journalists in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The effect on society is profound. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

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