Writer’s death should be lesson
The Turkish tragedy shows we must work to keep the press strong.
If journalists do the job right, they expect that the Orlando mayor one day may whine to the editor that coverage isn’t positive enough in The City Beautiful.
What they don’t expect is that 15 thugs with a bone saw will drag them into Orlando City Hall, chop off their fingers and head and then send body parts out the back door in plasticlined cardboard boxes.
That’s because the press in America is an integral part of keeping democracy alive and on track. In Saudi Arabia? Not so much. A critical press is merely an annoyance to the ruling family in the petro-state kingdom.
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi knew he was more than just a minor irritation to the royal family. He told his fiancée to call for help on one of his two cell phones if he didn’t emerge from the Saudi embassy in Turkey where he went Oct. 2 to get papers the day before their nuptials.
Khashoggi, 59, a Virginia resident who had applied for U.S. citizenship, never emerged. Saudi officials first claimed that the fighter for a free press did leave and his fiancée must have just missed him — she wasn’t looking closely enough. Riiiiight.
Within a day, the Saudis abandoned the “Whoops! Missed him” excuse, and the current behindthe-scenes theory the Saudis are expected to float next is that Khashoggi died in a rogue operation that went south. Riiiiiight.
Unfortunately, this situation is touchy because Saudi Arabia is a big ally of the U.S. — mostly be-
cause it controls about 25 percent of the world’s oil. Heaven knows there’s no other plausible reason. Few governments have such contempt for the U.S., its respect for equal rights for women and its love of freedom.
Still, U.S. forces saved Saudi’s behind during Desert Storm in 1991, when the only thing the kingdom seemed worried about was whether female troops fighting to save Saudi from Saddam Hussein would be “properly” covered according to their religious interpretations of the Koran. Did anyone ever hear them say “thank you” for running Iraq out of town?
For once, President Donald Trump got it right when on the day Khashoggi disappeared, he repeated a conversation he had with the king of Saudi Arabia: “I said, ‘King, we’re protecting you. You might not be there for two weeks without us.’”
Well, maybe. But Trump last year signed a deal to give the Saudis $110 billion worth of fighter jets and other military hardware over 10 years. And still, the U.S. treads gingerly, fearful of hurting feelings in the kingdom.
Now is the time to stop tiptoeing around the Saudis. The kingdom openly thumbed its nose at America by slaughtering Khashoggi inside the Saudi embassy some 20 days ago. If audio of his gruesome torture and death obtained by Turkish intelligence officers is genuine — there’s been no suggestion that it isn’t — the U.S. can’t afford to ignore it — just like Saudi wouldn’t ignore Trump taking a torch to a Koran on the steps of the Capitol.
Khashoggi had long advocated for an open press in Saudi Arabia, and he has been critical of the royal family that runs the country. However, he never suggested a coup or an overthrow of the government. Khashoggi operated like any American journalist, openly speaking truth to power.
British Parliament member Edmund Burke hit it right when he described newspapers in a 1787 debate as “the Fourth Estate.” It’s because the role of the press is to hold government accountable, a concept that is anathema to the Saudi ruling family but is a pillar that supports American freedom.
Trump hates the press, and he’d probably feed CNN reporters to Saudi thugs if he thought he could get away with it. That raises the question: Did the Saudis think they could pull this off because Trump continually bashes the American press? If so, let’s hope they judged wrongly.
For many years, the U.S. depended on Saudi oil. In 2017, however, America it got only 9 percent of imported oil from Saudi Arabia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Perhaps it’s time to snip some of the strings that tie the U.S. to a country whose distaste for American culture is open, except during photo ops with leaders.
Most of us won’t have a voice in what the nation does about Khashoggi. We can, however, work to keep the press strong in America.
Here’s a local step: Support Wednesday’s fundraiser for the First Amendment Foundation, a Tallahassee nonprofit that fights to force governments to release public records to anyone who wants them, among other goals.
The fundraiser, titled “Political Cartoons in the Time of Trump,” features an evening with syndicated editorial cartoonist Dana Summers and Andy Marlette, whose work has appeared in the Pensacola News-Journal since 2007. Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell is moderating.
Tickets are $35 for the program alone and $75 for the program and a VIP reception. The reception is set for 5:30 to 6:00 p.m., and the program from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Sentinel, where parking is free.
A government killing a journalist is barbaric, like so much of the Saudi “justice” system. Let’s make sure it never happens here.