After Jamal Khashoggi, an occasional columnist for The Washington Post, disappeared in Turkey, the American media ran wild with speculation. Over the past week, the idea that President Donald Trump’s “enemy of the people” comment about biased media led to Khashoggi’s disappearance became a talking point of the Left.
Former Atlantic author Ron Fournier raised the connection last Wednesday in a tweet:
The Huffington Post ran an article titled “Trump Calls Media The ‘Enemy Of The People.’ Maybe The Saudis Took Him Literally.” In it, author S.V. Date quotes Courtney Radsch of the Committee to Protect Journalists and former CIA analyst Ned Price to claim Trump’s rhetoric likely led to Khashoggi’s disappearance. Former U.S. ambassador to Greece and NATO, Nicholas Burns, was the lone person quoted saying the connection was strained.
Yahoo News then ran an article quoting someone close to Khashoggi who blamed Trump for the disappearance of his friend. Khaled Saffuri, identified by Yahoo as “a political analyst,” said Trump’s rhetoric about journalists and the media may have led to the possible death of Khashoggi.
“[Trump’s] rhetoric against journalists probably encouraged the Saudis to do it,” Saffuri said, adding the Saudis probably thought: “Trump hates journalists and he would not react if we kill one journalist.”
Saffuri, it should be pointed out, has deep ties to Al-Qaeda financing.
There is apparently no low for the mainstream media.
