> For all the horror, this was still only one person, one victim, killed. There are a great many other incidents in which large numbers of people have been deliberately killed yet we seem to just take such things as normal. The specifics of Khashoggi's murder were shocking, but the murder or disappearance of such persons is far from unusual on the world stage.

This is hugely important context to always keep in mind. The fact that MBS had managed to bamboozle the western media into fawning over his token "reforms" prior to the Saudis brazenly murdering Kashoggi was a disgrace.

It's telling that the media only really started caring about Saudi governmental corruption and criminality after one of their own - a fellow pundit who traveled in elite western circles - was grotesquely killed. MBS presumably had good reason to believe he could get away with murder, with Kashoggi being the exception that proves the rule.