The Newsroom Mafia

by Oswald Pereira

"In this novel, veteran-journalist-turned-novelist, Oswald Pereira provides an insider's view of the growing culture of planted news and reveals the fine line between fact and fiction in the newsroom. A racy, compelling crime thriller, The Newsroom Mafia, captures the unholy alliance between the fourth estate, the underworld, and the Government," the back cover of the book says.

"When Supercop Donald Fernandez declares an all-out war against the invincible Don, Narayan Swamy, he fights back with a formidable Mafia -- a private army of armed thugs and motley gang of corrupt police officers, backed by powerful politicians. What follows is a battle of raw power, sleaze, wits and dirty tactics by both the law breakers and the law enforcers, blurring boundaries between good and evil. To Save his skin, the Don fires his most lethal weapon, The Newsroom Mafia."

Genres: Fiction

259 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

I am the author of eight books, including six novels -- The Newsroom Mafia, Revenge of the Naked Princess, Chaddi Buddies, The Krishna-Christ Connexion, Golmaal In Goa and Army Girl Steals Civilian's Heart -- a self-help book How to Create Miracles in Our Daily Life and a book on true crime stories, Crime Patrol: The Most Thrilling Stories, co-authored with TV Superstar Annup Sonii.

My romance with books began in my early teens. But the first books I read were surprisingly not mushy romances or silly detective novels, but the great literary classics and 'heavy' books on philosophy, psychology and self-improvement.

I began reading thrillers and paperbacks much later in life. I always wanted to be a writer, but since publishing works of fiction was so difficult in a country like India, I chose what I thought was the second best option -- becoming a journalist.I have more than 30 years’ experience in journalism and communications.

Reviews

[Oswald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full Page Coverage in Mid Day
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2011/dec/...

It’s a daring and personal book that reads like a political thriller, says Ronald Malfi, award-winning American author
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main51.a...

Eight Reviews on Book Chums
http://www.bookchums.com/book-detail....

An Interesting Review on Book Racks
http://bookreviews.bookrack.in/2012/0...

The Newsroom Mafia has a "chilling ring of truth to it", says The Telegraph
http://2fwww.telegraphindia.com/11112...

A nice review in dfuse.in
http://dfuse.in/reviews-all/book-revi...

Interview with the author Oswald Pereira's in dfuse.in
http://dfuse.in/interviews/interview-...

Interview in Sakaal Times
http://epaper.sakaaltimes.com/SakaalT...

Video on the launch of The Newsroom Mafia on 8 December 2011 in Mumbai
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNHgDT...

[Athul · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where do I begin about the things I absolutely detested in this supposed attempt at charting a Machiavellian story. The character back story as a word filler, the out of turn sex bits, the story is set in late 80s but the protagonist is talking and describing things like it was 2011. Agreed it is an Indian story, written by an Indian primarily for Indians, so why does the Author feel the need to explain things like what is Thane or cultural aspects of India which everybody in India is well aware of. Not to mention the giant gaping holes in the fabric of common sense. I have nothing against moral dilemmas plaguing characters, personally I love them, but character inconsistencies with no explanation makes Rohit Shetty's Golmaal screenplay seem like sheer works of genius. Utter bollockerized nonsense. The one star claims I didn't like it, but in truth I absolutely hated this book.

Now that I have got the whole anger/angst/frustration out of my system, there are few good things. Which frankly I can't recollect at the moment because they are so supremely overshadowed by sheer shiteness found in the rest of the story.

[Rishi Prakash · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had picked this book just by reading the back cover in a book fair and it looked exciting for sure! The author is a veteran-journalist-turned-novelist so it had all ingredients to be a great book but it just turned out to be one of those book which you like it while reading and then forget all about it after you are done.

The story started well but slowly it went over-the-top with the incidents and events which somehow is unbelievable to me. I was expecting a very real kind of book from an experienced journalist and not a movie plot and that is where i got big time disappointed. The details on back room maneuvering in media has been well put for sure and gives a great insight in that world.

So read it to get an idea on how "Fourth Estate" is being used so well by people to make and affect opinions in a democratic Country where all that matters is "image" which can be built or killed in public domain in todays world!

[Reena Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book immensely readable and the story seemed so very plausible, given that the fourth estate hasn't exactly crowned itself with glory. Corruption among a section of journalists is a reality; and their links with undesirable elements including the mafia is well within the realm of possibility.

The police does investigate such cases, but quite often their hands are tied, because the political bosses are reluctant to take action against such scribes. The arrest of a journalist with alleged links with the underworld, makes The Newsroom Mafia, a really relevant book. Whether the journalist is really guilty of such links or it's a police frame up is still to be ascertained.

I would recommend The Newsroom Mafia as a must read!(less) "

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a good plot, and is well written in the big-picture sense, but on the word-by-word, sentence-by-sentence sense, I didn't like it very much. It may be that it's written in Indian English, which sounds odd to my ear, which is used to American English. I read all the way to the end, though, because I wanted to see what would happen, and I was surprised a few times along the way, which I liked. I also liked the ending.

[Mahesh Jain · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a real good read, the book shows the connection of underworld and how they manipulate the system along with media houses. It's exciting to read the event being unfolded in the book as it proceed. Most of the incidences are based on the real situation or we may say inspired by the real life as the author himself was a person related to the field of news. The book also shows importance of news room and power of print, how they can make or break someone and how they are used or misused by people in power . It's so shocking to read how people become philanthropist after doing all the wrong things and may be we would have seen such things around us all the time and would have realised it also but apart from just doing and pasing comments amongst our friends and coworkers hardly we could do any thing about it, because the game is played at the level where we can't even think it started from. So if you want to read a book which gives you a feel of a thriller suspense movie, then pick the book The Newsroom Mafia. It's a good one.

[Nirmit · Rating 3 out of 5]

The crime thriller story is gripping though it lacks its predictability at times. Secondly portraying of characters lacks getting attention. Excessive detailing about minute things like mindsets, environmental description, actions, characters appearances etc is quite boring. Intimate scenes lacks the appeal.

But on the good side one can surely expect great twists and turns, pace of story telling is good, depicting the true face of political and underworld's connections, corruptiomy, betrayal, drama... all sums up to a good novel.

[Balraj Shukla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Promising start; but a disappointing and pathetic finish.

[Serene Reform · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, an author comes along who exposes the inner workings, pretense and 'integrity' of the Indian media that is currently plaguing the state of affairs in this country.

Wake up Bollywood producers and scriptwriters, these are the kinds of novels that must be made be made into a movie so that Hindi movies actually make you think differently and inspire you rather than some of the rubbish(but not all) that is made nowadays with no valid plot but some abusive words and completely implausible characters.

The characters are complex, similar to real life where everyone is in shades of grey and no one is in black or white no matter how saintly or how criminal.

Naturally, when any individual exposes corrupt, multi-crore enterprises, all the ones with vested interests will panic, criticize and gather to defend their rake-off.

I recommend this book to all those who want to know the truth, and have the courage to do something about the state of affairs around and not just complain, criticize and actually, DO zero.

[Archana Chari · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Newsroom Mafia: show off
While the choice of words is lavishly picked, there is more to the narration than the story. I judged the book by its title and I was highly disappointed. Too many cooks spoil the broth, too many words bore the readers. The author failed miserably in drawing the attention of the readers. I don't usually take a long time for any book per se, but it says a lot about the book when I took so many long intervals in between while reading this one! Unless someone pays you(a lot!), nobody would give this sleep-inducing book a rating of five, in my opinion.

[Sylvester Pious · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked the book for the handling of the themes of corruption and planted news in the Media, the so called Fourth Estate. A must read if not for anything else, but to see how corruption in Media can sway opinions and make or break people.

[Ankur · Rating 2 out of 5]

what was the author trying to do in this book? absolutely no plot... no end, no beginning...

Disappointing...

[Varun Rajwade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book that starts well but then goes downhill from there.. The end is really ordinary but overall its a good breezy read with some interesting twist and turns..