Breaking: Gamblers on Polymarket are threatening to kill a journalist unless he changes his reporting on the Iran war—because accurate news is making them lose money.
Barak Ravid, a veteran Middle East correspondent, received messages on Telegram this week from multiple accounts threatening violence if he didn't alter his coverage of Israel's military operations. One message, reported by Common Dreams, read: "After you make us lose $900,000, we will invest no less than that to finish you."
The reason? Ravid's reporting is considered accurate, and accuracy is bad for their bets.
Here's how this works: Polymarket is a prediction market where users bet on real-world events. There are active markets on whether Israel will strike Iran's nuclear facilities, whether Hezbollah will launch rockets at Tel Aviv, and whether a ceasefire will be reached by specific dates. Millions of dollars are riding on these outcomes.
When a credible journalist reports that an event is likely or unlikely, the market moves. If you bet that Israel will strike Iran by March 20th, and Ravid reports that diplomatic channels are making progress, your bet is now worthless. So some users decided the solution was to threaten Ravid until he reported something more favorable to their positions.
This is the inevitable result of turning news into a betting market. When information has direct monetary value, bad actors will try to manipulate it. We've seen this before with stock manipulation and schemes. But those involve financial instruments—things that exist to be traded. is betting on war. On people dying. On geopolitical events that affect millions of lives.
