PLAGIARISM EXCLUSIVE! CHICAGO TRIBUNE TO TABLOID BABY: "YOUR CHARGE IS BASELESS! THE STORIES ARE DIFFERENT!"

The Chicago Tribune is standing strong against our charge that their Jerusalem correspondent Joel Greenberg (far left) plagiarized a story from Our Man Elli In Israel, despite the evidence we laid out. The powerful newspaper's public editor Timothy McNulty (left) was kind enough to respond to our complaints and allegations for the second time this afternoon-- and oy, what a response!

After tiptoeing around the matter yesterday, we challenged him to take a stand-- and Mr. McNulty rebutted our rebuttal with a strong denial of any wrongdoing in the case of Greenberg paraphrasing a story about former Israel Baseball League manager Ken Holtzman that was posted here weeks earlier, written-- and including verbatim translations from the Hebrew-- by Our Man Elli:

First, to be clear, your charge is baseless.

Mr. Holtzman spoke to Walla!, which has a Hebrew-language news page with sports.

Mr. Wohlgelernter quoted those remarks in a story in the English language edition of Haaretz and properly attributed them to Walla!

Mr. Greenberg also properly attributed the quotes to Walla! when he wrote his story, at the suggestion of his editor, and based on a telephone interview with league commissioner Dan Kurtzer, a conversation with a league advisory committee member and an e-mail exchange with Holtzman.

The work is Mr. Greenberg's, the stories are different.

As I understand it, you are essentially claiming that Greenberg should have given Wohlgelernter credit for translating the Holtzman quotes back into the original English.

I also understand that you will make of this what you will. I see that within 24 hours of my getting back to you promptly, you have added two mocking posts without waiting for a reply.

Tim McNulty

Sigh.

FROM ELLI'S ORIGINAL ARTICLE
POSTED AUGUST 28th ON TABLOIDBABY.COM:

In an interview on July 20 with the Israeli Web portal Walla!, Petah Tikva manager and former Major Leaguer Ken Holtzman let loose with a sweeping broadside against the Israel Baseball League, sparing no one.

He criticized the baseball fields: “They would reach the level of high schools in our country”; the teams: “Chosen at random, and in a strange manner”; the Israeli players: “There are no good Israeli players”; the other players: “According to what I can see, none of the players can reach even semi-pro baseball in the United States… the really good player would never come here”; and the Israeli fan: “There is no chance that baseball will succeed in Israel. People here relate to baseball the way people in America relate to soccer. They see it as something very boring, and it will never catch on… you can't make a big impression because there is no culture of baseball, and the facilities are the worse possible."

A season of frustration all came pouring out, and against league organizers as well.

They wanted to make the league work very very quickly,” Holtzman said. “...But they opened the league a year too soon...They should have waited.”

FROM JOEL GREENBERG'S
SEPTEMBER 17th CHICAGO TRIBUNE ARTICLE:

He was much more forthcoming in a July 20 interview with the Israeli Web portal Walla!, in which he lambasted the league and its management for what he described as a series of shortcomings.

The playing fields, he was quoted as saying, "would reach the level of high schools in our country." The teams were "chosen at random and in a strange manner." As for the players, Holtzman said, "none can reach even semipro baseball in the United States."

"There is no chance that baseball will succeed in Israel," Holtzman went on. "People here relate to baseball the way people in America relate to soccer. They see it as something very boring, and it will never catch on. You can't make a big impression because there is no culture of baseball, and the facilities are the worst possible."

Holtzman also heaped criticism on league organizers, whom he accused of rushing into the first year of play without proper preparation on the ground.

"They opened the league a year too soon," he said. "They should have waited."

What do you think?