“The propensity of man to imitate what is before him is one of the strongest parts of his nature.”

— Walter Bagehot, Physics and Politics (1872)

Journalists who say they’ve never been tempted to plagiarise are either liars or haven’t read enough. However, journalists who give into the urge are either — to put it mildly — dim-witted or too smug to realise they’d eventually get caught.

But what if you have been caught once?

Outlook Executive Editor Dilip Bobb’s case of what smells like plagiarism and reads like plagiarism is inexplicable because back in 2010, Bobb was allegedly made to resign and rumour has it that the reason was plagiarism.

The magazine’s Letter From The Editor on Rajinikanth signed by Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie had lifted sentences off a Slate article. Purie had then written to Slate, basically stating that “those in charge of editing the copy” were responsible for the plagiarised portions and that “serious action has been taken against those concerned”. Bobb, then-the managing editor of India Today, was rumoured to have been held responsible, though, neither India Today nor Purie ever issued a clarification on who exactly copy-pasted sentences from the Slate piece.

Cut to 2016, and a case of plagiarism involving Bobb’s byline has come to light. The piece in question is a combined review of Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton’s latest albums – Fallen Angels and I Still Do, respectively. The 550-odd word piece has close to 200 lines that are either direct lifts or heavily “inspired” by NPR’s review of Fallen Angels and Consequence of Sound’s review of I Still Do.

Newslaundry was alerted to this by Thiruvananthapuram-based architect and researcher Krishnachandran, who diligently colour-coded Bobb’s copy-paste job for us to see the pattern.

Follow the colours.

Now, aside from the thematic “similarities”, Bobb’s review has direct lifts like this:

1. “Even on something philosophical, like Young At Heart (Sinatra again), he invests the lines with a personal meaning, an awareness of his own fragile state…”

From NPR’s review:

“And even when he’s rendering something that requires a more philosophical tone, like “Young At Heart”; he invests the lines with some personal meaning, some trace awareness of his own fragile state.”

Krishnachandran said when he read the Outlook review of the latest albums by Dylan and Clapton, it seemed very similar to a review he had read on NPR. “I then looked up couple of other online reviews of Clapton’s albums and found that significant chunks of the Outlook review uses ideas and phrases/sentences from previously published sources without attribution,” he told Newslaundry.

He said that this specific instance of plagiarism in Outlook magazine needed to be highlighted and discussed in the media. “I see this more as indicative of a general problem which exists not just in journalism, but other forms of writing and creative output.”

The article Krishnachandran pointed to is not the only one by Bobb that displays a liberal use of the copy and paste commands. There is this piece, That Boy’s Life, on actor Leonardo Di Caprio, which has three clear instances of plagiarism, or ‘inspiration’. Take a read.

1. “In The Revenant, he drags his half-dead body over miles of frozen tundra, his face a mask of pain, his dialogue reduced to snuffles and grunts.”

From a piece on Vulture:

“As you watch Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant haul his twisted body over miles and miles of frozen tundra, his face a mask of rage and pain, his snuffles and grunts resounding through the theater…”

2. “In his best roles, he has always drawn on that physical tension within himself, to unnerve or delight…”

From a piece on Telegraph:

“DiCaprio has always drawn on that physical tension within himself, to entrance, unnerve and delight.”

3. “In each of his three most recent films, there is a shot in which DiCaprio quietly smiles and raises a glass to the camera. It’s a befitting frame. He’s now the boy-king of Hollywood, standing triumphant on the prow, arms spread wide and no icebergs on the horizon.”

From the same Telegraph piece:

“In each of his three most recent films, there is a shot in which he smiles ingratiatingly and raises a glass to the camera. They’re welcoming us into the playroom, but they’re toasting themselves – each the boy-king of his own little world, standing triumphant on the prow, unworried by the icebergs ahead.”

That’s not all. A piece on the movie All About Eve has a direct lift from another review.

1) “Sanders plays a theatre critic and sets the sardonic tone of the film. He is the principal narrator, and with his cigarette holder, his slicked-down hair and his flawless evening attire, he sees everything with deep cynicism.”

From rogerebert.com

“But the sardonic tone of the film is set by Sanders, as DeWitt. He’s the principal narrator, and with his cigarette holder, his slicked-down hair and his flawless evening dress, he sees everything with deep cynicism.”

These are only some of the instances that have come to Newslaundry’s attention. We sent Bobb an email, seeking his side of the story. He said, “Any charge of plagiarism is rubbish.”

We’re not very sure about that. Evidently, Outlook agrees with us because after we contacted Editor-in-Chief Krishna Prasad, alerting him to Bobb’s lack of originality, the articles were taken offline.

It is increasingly difficult for journalists and academics to get away with plagiarism. The pressure to churn out articles is immense and the reader is more vigilant than ever, with more tools at hand to detect plagiarism. It’s not a crime to be unoriginal — it’s a cross that many writers bear — but the least we can do is hyperlink and credit those who took the trouble to do more than copy and paste.

The author can be contacted at manisha.pande1110@gmail.com and on Twitter @MnshaP