A war reporter in the middle of a betting war
A Times of Israel reporter has been receiving death threats over his refusal to "correct" an article about a missile strike on a city near Jerusalem. The reason? His reporting was the final word that determined a market on Polymarket.
My minor report on a missile striking an open area was now in the middle of a betting war, with those who had bet “No” on an Iranian strike on Israel on March 10 demanding I change my article to ensure they would win big.
Of course, Fabian refused to amend the article. So, over the course of a weekend, the threats intensified. A person identifying themselves only as "Haim" began texting him in Hebrew over WhatsApp, Fabian wrote:
Later in the afternoon, Haim messaged me again, this time with the most explicit threat yet.
“You have 90 minutes left to update the lie. If you do this — you solve in a minute the most serious problem you have caused yourself in life. And you won’t remember me anymore in a week.”
“If you decide not to correct it, and leave the lie intact, you will discover enemies who will be willing to pay anything to make your life miserable — within the framework of the law.”
“And as far as I know, there are also some people who don’t really care about the law, and you’re going to make them lose about 50 times what you’ll ever make.”
“86 minutes left. You are the only one responsible for your life.”
Thankfully, the threats were hollow. And Fabian, evidently, is a man of solid ethics. But he raises the point: What might less-ethical journalists, or more afraid, journalists do in his situation? "I do worry that other journalists may not be as ethical if they are promised some of the winnings," he wrote.