The Times of India plagiarises again

IN Media Practice | 18/10/2005
Yet another blogger posts evidence of plagiarism by the TOI, this time in the Bombay Times.

Excerpts from http://sunildmonte.blogspot.com/

Friday, October 14, 2005EXTRA! Bombay Times Plagiarises Interview!

This was just too good to pass up, RSI or no RSI. I`m currently in Bombay at my grandmother`s place. We get the Times of India here, out of habit and nothing else. So I was leafing through yesterday`s (October 13th 2005) issue of Bombay Times, when I came across this on page 11:

 

JAKE OF ALL TRADES!

I don`t care how much I get paid for my roles as long as the roles are good,

Hollywood actor Jake Gyllenhaal tells BT


Wow. Bombay Times has scored an interview with Hollywood actor Jake Gyllenhaal? Is it a fake??? I decided to check it out. Lo and behold: a few minutes on Google revealed the real interview... it was from IGN`s Filmforce website, and the interviewer was someone called Steven Horn. Wait, it gets better: the IGN interview is dated May 28. That`s May 28, 2004.

A closer examination reveals a few interesting facts. Firstly, it`s not a simple copy-and-paste job. The BT ?writer? or ?editor? or whatever they call themselves has gone through great pains to touch up the article to make it slightly different from the original. Change a few words here and there, merge the answers to different questions, maybe even rewrite the question itself. Here`s a sample:

From the original:

Q: Were you encouraged to act as a kid, because you come from an acting family? Yeah, I was. My parents destroyed my life as a child. (Laughs jokingly) No... my parents, my family... I grew up on movie sets, so it was something I just found familiar. When I was growing up also, in high school, I would audition for things and my parents let me audition for things - with the thought that I wouldn`t get them. And then I would get them... and it would surprise them. Not that they didn`t think I could. When I did, it was like they told me I couldn`t do it. Which now I thank them for more than anything. But, I hated them at the time for it. I thought it as everything I wanted to do then.

Q: What would you would be auditioning for?
Movies. I mean, they let me audition for school plays and do them, which was really nice of them. I remember a friend of mine`s mother was an agent, and she sort of went, `Oh yeah, whatever, we`ll look for things.` So we started looking for things, and I just would go on auditions, you know, professional auditions and rehearse with my dad. The best thing that I got was rehearsing with my father. It was always about the process of figuring things out, and trying something new, and having another take on something and keeping it alive. So I started to fall in love with it because I worked with him like that. That encouraged me. It was more creative than it was professional when I was little.
 



 

Read the rest at:

 

http://sunildmonte.blogspot.com/2005/10/extra-bombay-times-plagiarises.html

Earlier stories about plagiarism by the Times group at

http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web2196523812Hoot112934%20PM1423&pn=1

http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=webhoothootL1K0920211&pn=1&section=S1 

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