Reporter's Life Threatened Over Report That Affected Polymarket
Emanuel Fabian, a 28-year-old war correspondent at the Times of Israel newspaper, published a short blog post reporting that an Iranian missile had struck an open area outside a Jerusalem suburb that didn't hurt anyone.
Until he began to receive threatening messages, Fabian didn’t know his brief report had triggered a dispute over bets on the prediction market Polymarket on whether an Iranian missile would strike Israel on March 10. For those with money down, millions of dollars were potentially riding on his blog post.
Fabian thought about revising his published reporting, he told The Washington Post in a phone interview Monday. That could score a win for Polymarket users who had bet against a missile strike occurring that day. One offered to share his profits.
Instead, he reported the threats to the police and wrote an article for the Times of Israel chronicling his harrowing experience. Fabian said he decided to publicize the story in the hope that “anyone who’s ever thinking about threatening a journalist will maybe think twice.”
Yeah, I think he might be a little too optimistic there. Personally, I hate legalized gambling. It corrupts everything it touches.