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“Stuff occurs.” Just two words. That was enough for the US president 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 the press, for the media – and for the facts.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissal of the murder of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist 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 kidnap and killing of the journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the only ones to determine the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the late journalist was drugged and cut apart – was signed off at the top echelons. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, nations were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted penalties and visa bans in that year over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation 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

Opponents of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was on display at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did the president fete the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter the facts – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, Trump claimed when asked, was unaware about the killing – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This represents a fresh and shameful point for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the facts – or for the press. Trump has defamed journalists (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the inquiry 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 disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has forced established media out of the White House press pool for declining to use terminology of his choosing, and he has gutted funding for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an environment in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that person”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for journalists in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this information: a ongoing neglect to hold those accountable for reporter murders has created a culture of impunity 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 deaths of more than 200 media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The effect on the public is profound. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to exist without fear and safely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its annual global journalism honors. The statement there is the identical as my one for the president: these things may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.