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“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 last decade – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward journalists, for the media – and for the facts.

Background Details

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the killing of prominent journalist the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a recent assessment had ordered the kidnap and killing of the journalist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the late journalist was sedated and dismembered – was approved at the top echelons. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, nations were unified in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The US enacted sanctions and travel restrictions in 2021 over the murder, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the government had strongly criticized the visit. But what was evident at the White House was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then blamed the deceased. Prince Mohammed, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people 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 little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. He has defamed journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question about the journalist at the media event “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has pressured established media out of the official briefing group for refusing to use terminology of his preference, and he has gutted funding for vital news services at domestically and crucial free press abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an atmosphere in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people disliked that person”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been tracking this information: a persistent failure to bring to justice those responsible for reporter murders has established a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the deaths of over two hundred media workers in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The impact on society is profound. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our liberty to exist without fear and safely.

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its annual International Press Freedom awards. The statement there is the same as my one for the president: such events may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.