By Daniel Larison

October 09, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - The Wall Street Journal publishes a predictably toothless editorial in response to reports that the Saudi government has murdered Jamal Khashoggi:

The Saudi reformers have allies in Washington, but they will lose them if they aren’t transparent about Jamal Khashoggi’s fate.

If the latest outrage from Mohammed bin Salman changes anything, it should at the very least put an end to the absurd description of the crown prince and his allies as “reformers” once and for all. Reformer is a label that Western pundits and politicians use to describe foreign leaders when they want to express approval and support. It is often not intended to be an accurate statement about the leader’s record, but rather serves to distract from the worst parts of that record in order to sell the leader to Western audiences. Foreign leaders know that they can win a lot of supporters in the West just by saying the right things about a handful of issues, and as long as they keep up appearances their Western boosters will overlook or even defend the worst excesses.

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