It has doubtless been a traumatic week for those who loved and worked with Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as astonishing details emerged of the apparent circumstances of his death.

Amid a still-unfolding story of dark inhumanity and deliberately obfuscating official responses, Hatice Cengiz was moved to post a very simple, human clip of her fiancé. Meanwhile Fred Hiatt, who runs the opinion section of the Washington Post where Khashoggi’s journalism appeared, recounted how his colleagues were coming to terms with what had happened.

Acknowledging that by publishing a column on Thursday which Khashoggi had filed before he disappeared the paper did not expect him to write another, Hiatt told the Washingtonian: “There are people all over the world who are horrified by this. And I feel at least fortunate to be in a place where I can try to do something about it. We’ve been totally consumed with what I see as our mission in this case, which is to press for a full accounting of what happened, then full accountability for whoever is responsible.”

“The only tool we have is good journalism,” Hiatt said.

On Sunday night, the Post’s CEO and publisher issued the following statement:

And their pain is unlikely to subside anytime soon, with Turkish president Erdogan reportedly set to release further details of the investigation into Khashoggi’s fate on Tuesday – ironically the opening day of the Saudis’ Future Investment Initiative conference from which global media groups and business leaders have been scrambling to withdraw. This morning, Bloomberg reports that foreign investors are “dumping Saudi stocks like never before.”

In that final column – which, significantly, the Post also published in Arabic – Khashoggi appealed for greater free expression across the region.

“The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power. During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe, which grew over the years into a critical institution, played an important role in fostering and sustaining the hope of freedom. Arabs need something similar…

“More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices. We suffer from poverty, mismanagement and poor education. Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face.”

Even as Khashoggi’s column was appearing, though, we were already starting to see elements of the media in both Saudi Arabia and the US, as well as online, attempting to overwhelm the story and to take some heat off the uncertain position of President Trump, whose son-in-law Jared Kushner had been reportedly telling the president to stand by Prince Mohammed bin Salman until the crisis might “blow over”.

Karl Vick writes in Time that “All this would be a challenge to any US President. It’s even more complicated for Trump, who has gladly returned the Saudis’ embrace, making Riyadh his first overseas trip. After he took office, Saudi Arabia nearly tripled its spending on lobbying in D.C. to $27 million in 2017, according to data compiled by the Center for International Policy that was provided to TIME. MBS cultivated Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, scion to scion, and spoke the transactional language of Trump by professing interest in arms deals said to be worth $110 billion (though few have yet come to fruition). Trump even argued after Khashoggi’s disappearance that the risk to defense-sector jobs tied his hands.”

Even television evangelist Pat Robertson felt he had to weigh in, opining that a US arms deal and relationship with the Saudis was more important than one person’s life.

Meanwhile, in a column for the Spectator, John R Bradley wrote “What the media aren’t telling you about Jamal Khashoggi” saying that “The fate of Khashoggi has at least provoked global outrage, but it’s for all the wrong reasons.”

Bradley writes: “We are told he was a liberal, Saudi progressive voice fighting for freedom and democracy, and a martyr who paid the ultimate price for telling the truth to power. This is not just wrong, but distracts us from understanding what the incident tells us about the internal power dynamics of a kingdom going through an unprecedented period of upheaval. It is also the story of how one man got entangled in a Saudi ruling family that operates like the Mafia. Once you join, it’s for life, and if you try to leave, you become disposable.”

Covering a story with so many angles and so many sources clearly presents a range of challenges, but if anything is certain here it’s that this one is far from over. Eli Lake at Bloomberg looks at why Congress won’t buy the Saudis’ latest version of events and what’s likely to happen next, while Roland Paris writes in the Toronto Star that the Khashoggi case has become a “test for despots” everywhere. “Can they get away with interrogating, kidnapping and even assassinating their critics in other countries?”

 

Body-slamming the press

Beyond the immediate grief of Khashoggi’s friends and colleagues, this past week has also been – yet again, because of the words of the US president – a difficult time for anyone who holds dear a free press and the principle of speaking truth to power.

At a campaign rally in Montana, Mr Trump praised local congressman Greg Gianforte, who won his seat in a special election in May despite pleading guilty to assaulting Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs on the eve of the contest. “Any guy that can do a body slam… he’s my guy,” Trump said, to cheers from the crowd, as he mimicked throwing a person to the ground.

This kind of rhetoric would be worrying – if perhaps not totally unexpected from this president – at any time; but was especially so since it came in the aftermath of Khashoggi’s disappearance. The editor of the Guardian US, John Mulholland, made the point:

Trump was later defended by GOP politicians like congressman Steve Scalise – himself famously a victim of violence last year – who said the president was “ribbing” Gianforte – and Sen Ben Sasse, who said the president was being “playful” in praising the assault, and that “people kind of tune most of it out.”

That’s the same Ben Sasse who’s currently promoting his new book “Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal”.

(Incidentally, a Montana GOP official subsequently said she “would have shot” the reporter if she had been in Gianforte’s place.)

But while that kind of rally theater has to a greater or lesser extent always been the President’s schtick, his remarks in Montana could pose a genuine danger to journalists – not that one didn’t already exist – in heightening antagonism against the media and opponents, particularly in an environment where an issue for the modern Republican party is its relationship with extreme elements like the so-called Proud Boys.

Writing in the Washington Post, Margaret Sullivan describes how Trump “trashes the laws that protect free speech, but he would be lost without them,” while the NYT’s Maggie Haberman pointed out on CNN that Trump has enjoyed a “consequence-free” life when it comes to being faced with evidence contradicting anything he might have said. “We have seen him time and time again suggest essentially that facts are something to be disputed,” She said. “That there is no shared data, shared facts… And that’s the scary moment we’re in.”

Meanwhile the president’s base, it seems, are happy to believe any lie he tells them. And the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll puts his approval rating at 47 per cent – higher than President Obama’s ahead of the 2010 midterms.

 

Countdown to the Midterms

With the respective campaigns coming into clearer focus for the final push until Nov 6, Trump’s praise for Gianforte’s wrestling skills somewhat goes against the GOP narrative that political violence is the exclusive preserve of the left.

Nevertheless, the Republicans’ “Mobs vs jobs” slogan is a memorable one; expect to hear more of it.

Despite continuing allegations of voter registration irregularities in Georgia – where the man overseeing the election is also a candidate, and has president Trump’s backing – early voting is underway, with so far almost three times as many people voting, compared with the previous midterms. The president’s ominous tweets about voter fraud don’t seem to have deterred people from standing in line.

But there’s still some confusion over exactly what is the Democrats’ message? Or, indeed, who is the consolidating figure or personality that people will be inspired to coalesce around, to challenge the larger-than-life persona of the president. While Trump takes aim at the familiar Republican targets – Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein or Maxine Waters – Sen Elizabeth Warren seemed to go out of her way this week to lose focus and invite still more ridicule.

On the upside for the Dems, healthcare seems to be increasingly resonating with voters across the country, and half of all Democratic ad spending is being focused on the issue. Also, they appear to have hit the jackpot with some very good local candidates – particularly among women. This ad highlighting Democratic women candidates released this week is probably the best generic spot I’ve seen so far in this electoral cycle.

But the much-anticipated “Blue wave” still remains far from certain.

And the Democrats’ one rising star with national media appeal beyond his local race – Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke – could still realistically lose his Senate race to Ted Cruz by double digits, despite this week picking up the endorsement of the Houston Chronicle and apparently handily winning the final televised debate.

Newt Gingrich – remember him? – thinks the defining issues for the election will be “Kavanaugh and the Caravan,” as fears continue to be stoked about immigration, with thousands of migrants continuing their journey towards the southern border prompting Trump’s threat to dispatch the military to halt the “onslaught.” Tom Nichols, author of The Death of Expertise and a recent high-profile Republican defector, tweeted that the caravan is “such a gift to Trump and the GOP that one could be forgiven for thinking the Republicans somehow organized it.”

As the differences between the two parties’ campaigning styles comes more starkly into relief the closer the midterms get, we’re forced to reflect on the wisdom of Steve Bannon: the man who, probably more than anyone, is responsible for the Trump presidency.

Bannon – who once said that the way to counteract a hostile media was to “flood the zone with shit” – reportedly told filmmaker Michael Moore that the difference was that while Democrats would engage in “pillow fights,” the more brutal Republicans will always go for a “head wound.”

As we all search for appropriate and acceptable language to describe our politics in these polarized times, maybe we’re just in too deep. Maybe it’s too much to expect to find words that can de-escalate rather than inflame an already raw situation. But then, there’s rarely an advantage to be gained in de-escalation, is there?

 

Related stories by Steve McGookin on Northern Slant:

 

Also published on Medium.