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Maariv, one of the biggest Israeli newspapers, is in the process of reinventing itself. Among other things, a new segment was added to the daily gossip column, featuring international blabs.
Every time I read the new segment I was filled with a sense of Déjà vu, but until recently I could not put my finger on it. Last week I had my Eureka moment: Maariv’s international gossip guy, Moshe Tazat  , must be just as big a Perez Hilton fan as I am – only difference is I am reading Perez on my free time, and he is making money (not much, mind you) stealing material from the website, translating it to Hebrew and passing it as his own.

After conducting a short four day inquiry, I can say this:
- Out of 27 gossip items in Maariv – 18 can be traced back to similar posts that appeared on Perez, and usually exactly 48 hours before – that’s two out of every three items.
- One of the posts in Maariv appeared as an exclusive celebrity sighting on PerezHilton.com.
- The Hebrew phrasing is often eerily close to the English one.
- Only once was Perez credited for an item.

Of course there are some extenuating circumstances that should be mentioned:
As things happen in the world, Perez and other online gossip sites are reporting them almost instantly, while the printed press can only print them the next day, making it look like it is coming in second every time.
Also, it is common practice among bloggers to quote from other sources for the benefit of the blog’s readers, but credit is almost always given. In any case, there is no way to compare people who write for the fun of it and a reporter (to use the term loosely) which actually gets a salary for his work.

The sheer number of occurrences, similar wording, and quoting same figures, suggest someone on Maariv’s payroll has been slacking off by practicing some copy-and-paste journalism. The Maariv segment called ‘Global Swamp’ should really be called ‘Perez in Hebrew’, giving props to the guy that actually does any work.

Following are some visual aids from the last four days:

The green arrow indicates the single Maariv item that credited Perez Hilton.