In my last blog post I wrote about Jamal Khashoggi and his death. This week his death understandably is taking up the news headlines. The Saudis have confirmed Khashoggi’s death but now he is to blame. Apparently Khashoggi fought in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul which led to him being killed. The questions we need to ask ourselves is 1) If Khashoggi went to get a marriage certificate what on earth would make him want to fight? 2) Why would 15 Saudis men need to go to the consulate? Newspapers reported that 15 men came with a bone saw. Are 15 men needed to question one man? Why did the head of the consulate integrate Khashoggi himself? There is a lot of missing pieces and the statements issued by the Saudi government don’t add up. In my last post I made an assumption what if President Trump know more than he was letting on? Based on the newspapers reports we definitely know there is more to the story and my assumption may not be too far off. I am glad this story is still part of the news cycle. I think it is imperative that Journalist here and internationally demand the truth. Why has Turkey decided not to show the tapes? What are they hiding? If Journalist don’t press for the truth, this situation could cause a “Slippery Slope for “All Journalist” at home and aboard.
In an article in The New York Times, GOP candidates have created their own apps to push out their message to their followers. Midterm elections are soon and they are desperate to win their elections. They have accused Facebook and YouTube of censoring their message. This new way of relaying messages to their followers creates more of a divide. They could feed more misinformation to their followers. But once the midterm elections are over these apps are still out there. Information will still be pushed out. The GOP is the party of our current President. Trump is at war with.any media that may criticize him or does not agree with his policies. The creation of these apps might be an avenue for Trump to further control the narrative he wants to out there. Journalist, need to send a message to the world they can’t be hushed: Emphases needs to placed on “Speaking Truth to Power.” If not, America will resemble Russia more.
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I think you may be trying to tie too many things in here. I am also not sure we need to speculate what Trump knew/didn’t know. At issue is Trump’s unwillingness (at least initially) to forcefully condemn the killing of a journalist who was also a resident (though not citizen) of the US. Trump’s willingness to state publicly that an arms deal is more important than the assassination of a journalist (and thus a threat against all journalists in Saudi Arabia and beyond), is truly concerning. It is part of a pattern as well where Trump has sided with foreign strongmen over information from US intelligence services. This is a true threat to the press.
In terms of Turkey- I would assume they are actually releasing the tape/information as slowly as possible so as to drag the news cycle out and inflict the most damage on their rival, Saudi Arabia.
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