Wouldn't It Be Nice?

Years ago, on assignment in Damascus, Syria, I had the opportunity to watch the Syrian Evening News. This was during the reign of Hafez al-Assad, who was the brutal father of the equally brutal son, Bashar. (Last seen in Moscow.)

Anyway, being a student of the “look” of newscasts from America to Russia to China, I was intrigued to see what was on offer in Syria’s capital and across the nation. The program began with music, not quite martial, but what sounded like an Arab marching band — if such a thing existed.

Various beauty shots of the countryside rolled by on the screen with some Arabic narrative I didn’t understand, and the camera panned upward. Then, amid the azure sky and tufts of fluffy white clouds, a heart emerged. Not an actual heart, but kind of a big Valentine. And out of that “heart,” Assad the elder’s face, along with his ten-fingered forehead, emerged, godlike. Smiling benevolently over the nation he ruled until the day he died.

I had someone translate the rest of it. There were lots of comings and goings of diplomats alighting from limousines, and breathless commentary about how the Lebanese or Iraqi foreign ministers had met their Syrian counterpart in a fruitful exchange of views, etc. But there was no real news. Assad was praised, and praised. Maybe the weather was factual, but I’m not sure. Certainly, there was nothing about how the Assad family was butchering dissidents, imprisoning thousands, or cozying up to the Kremlin.

It all came back to me this week as I watched the disgraceful spectacle of an American president dressing down an American reporter for asking a Saudi autocrat a tough, but utterly reasonable question. Mary Bruce, the White House correspondent for ABC News, asked Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the killing of a journalist, which U.S. intelligence concluded he had almost certainly ordered.

Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen, a Washington Post columnist, and a frequent critic of the Saudi royal family, was murdered in 2018 while visiting a Saudi consulate in Turkey. He was strangled to death by Saudi security forces, and his body was carved up with a bone saw. His remains were scattered to the four winds. Bruce wanted to know about the prince’s role, if any, in the killing.

And while the prince, himself, offered some mumblings about how he wasn’t involved in such a regrettable incident, it was our president’s attitude that stands out. Is it just me, or does Trump seem to save his worst for the Oval Office?

“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,” Trump told Bruce. Never mind that Trump didn’t bother to mention who the “lot of people” were or the evidence he had that Khashoggi was roundly disliked. (He wasn’t.)

The U.S. intelligence community investigated the Khashoggi murder and concluded in 2021 that “the Crown Prince viewed Khashoggi as a threat to the Kingdom and broadly supported using violent measures if necessary to silence him.”

But the leader of the free world sounded as if he thought the killing of Khashoggi was almost understandable. “You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,” referring to Khashoggi. “Things happen,” Trump continued, “but he (the prince) knew nothing about it, and can we leave it at that?”

“You don’t have to embarrass our guest, asking a question like this.”

Asking a question like what? Oh, I dunno, maybe something about how almost all of the 9-11 hijackers came from his oil-rich sandbox of a country? Or about how the Saudis are pouring money directly into the Trump family business. Impertinent? Yes. Important? You bet.

The crown prince doesn’t get tough questions at home. And Trump sounds like a man who envies him. When, during the same Oval Office appearance, Bruce asked Trump why he didn’t just release the Jeffrey Epstein files instead of waiting for Congress to write a law asking him to do it, Trump again must have thought how wonderful being president would be without all these troublesome ink-stained wretches.

“You know,” Trump responded, “it’s not the question that I mind. It’s your attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask these questions. You start off with a man who is highly respected (that would be the aforementioned crown prince), asking him a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question.

“And you could even ask that same, exact question nicely. You’re all psyched. Somebody psyches you over at ABC, they’re gonna psych, eh. You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter.”

You could almost see Trump thinking how great it would be to give her the Khashoggi treatment. “I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake. And it’s so wrong.

“I think the way you ask a question with the anger and the meanness is terrible,” he continued to Bruce. “You ought to go back and learn how to be a reporter. No more questions from you.”

I think I can say with confidence that Mary Bruce needs no lessons on how to be a reporter. But somebody else could use a few lessons on how to be a president.