Reporter Michael Hastings dies at 33

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Reporter Michael Hastings dies at 33

 

Award-winning journalist Michael Hastings, who wrote the Rolling Stone profile that led to Gen. Stanley McChrystal's resignation, died in a car accident early Tuesday in Los Angeles, according to his employers at Buzzfeed and Rolling Stone. He was 33.

 

"We are shocked and devastated by the news that Michael Hastings is gone," Buzzfeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith wrote. "Michael was a great, fearless journalist with an incredible instinct for the story, and a gift for finding ways to make his readers care about anything he covered from wars to politicians. He wrote stories that would otherwise have gone unwritten, and without him there are great stories that will go untold."

 

Hastings is perhaps best known for "Runaway General," the 2010 Rolling Stone blockbuster story on Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commanded the U.S. forces in Afghanistan until President Obama urged him to resign in the days after the report.

 

Hastings has also authored several books, including: The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan, which stemmed from his story on McChrystal; I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story, written after his then-fiance, an aide worker, was killed in a car bombing while he was covering the Iraq war for Newsweek; and a book on the election for Buzzfeed, Panic 2012.

 

His colleagues at Rolling Stone remembered him as a fearless reporter who refused to "cozy up to power."

Matt Farwell, who recently worked with Hastings, said the journalist was not only great at his job, but was a great friend.

 

"Looking back on the past ten years is tough for anyone, but looking back on Michael's past ten years and you begin to understand how passionate and dedicated to this work he was, a passion that was only equaled by his dedication to his family and friends, and how much more he lived in thirty-three years than most people live in a lifetime," Farwall wrote.

 

Hastings is survived by his wife, Elise.

 

 

[mudslag]

So what exactly is the conspiracy here?

[Praetor]

So what exactly is the conspiracy here?

i dunno.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Moved here.

[Growled Member]

I guess it was his time to go. RIP.

[DocM]

Good reporter, and it's sad to have a promising talent go that young and that way. RIP and condolences to his loved ones.

I guess the implied "conspiracy" is that govt. spooks might have set it up. Silly.

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

 

VIDEO: Was Journalist Michael Hastings Murdered? Police and Firefighters on the Scene Told not to Comment

 

 

Mercedes Benz debunks the theory that the car of Wikileaking journalist Michael Hastings ?just blew up? upon impact. Journalists have consulted leading University Physics professors in the Los Angeles area, who all agreed that the placement of the engine defied expectations of a normal crash scenario.

 

Police and reporters on the scene confirm there were NO skid marks, both explaining the videos of the speeding car. (Gag order issued for Police and Firefighters responders to scene of Wikileaking Journalist assassination,  The Political Blind Spot July 11, 2013)

 

The crime scene has made investigative journalists as well as former military doubt Hastings? car crash was an accident and claim that Michael Hasting?s car could have been manipulated through remote control. Adding to the murder suspicions is an email Hastings wrote to his coworkers only a few hours before he died:

 

Subject: FBI Investigation, re: NSA Hey (redacted names) ? the Feds are interviewing my ?close friends and associates.? Perhaps if the authorities arrive ?BuzzFeed GQ,? er HQ, may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our news-gathering practices or related journalism issues.

 

Also: I?m onto a big story, and need to go off the rada[r] for a bit.

 

All the best, and hope to see you all soon. (Melissa Jeltsen,  Michael Hastings Sent Email About FBI Probe Hours Before Death, Huffington Post, June 23, 2013)

 

WhoWhatWhy published a lengthy article on July 14 in which author Michael Krikorian quotes ?Terry Hopkins, a former U.S. Navy military policeman who served in Afghanistan?:

 

?I?ve never seen an explosion like that? I?ve seen military vehicles explode, but never quite like that. Look, here?s a reporter who brought down a general. He?s sending out emails saying he?s being watched. It?s four in the morning and his car explodes? Come on, you have to be na?ve not to at least consider it wasn?t an accident.? (Michael Krikorian and David J. Krajicek, The Michael Hastings Wreck?Video Evidence Only Deepens the Mystery, WhoWhatWhy, July 14, 2013)

[vcfan]

 

The crime scene has made investigative journalists as well as former military doubt Hastings? car crash was an accident and claim that Michael Hasting?s car could have been manipulated through remote control. Adding to the murder suspicions is an email Hastings wrote to his coworkers only a few hours before he died:

 

wow strong engineering.

 

anyone aware?

[_neutrino Veteran]

cannot personally say i could put a face to the name but i have heard of him. still sad to see someone die.

[DocM]

So, at 4:30AM witnesses see a Benz traveling at a high rate of speed on a road known for its potholes bottoms out, fishtails & crashes and the usual Neowin suspects try to turn it into anything but what it obviously is? Whodathunkit? :rofl:

[Azies]

Either the Government killed him, or he was a drunk tool and passed out with his foot on the gas.

[DocM]

Occam's Razor says the latter.

I've seen (way too many) burned car crash victims over the years, and the vast majority aren't much more than a (very smelly) collection of charred bones & jerky with a bit of flesh in the middle - if you're lucky. Using the term "autopsy" for the examination is just formal bureaucratese. A sample of flesh, if any, gets sent out for toxicology, the teeth are compared to dental records, and the rest is often in such bad shape it should be cremated for shipment - which the car has already 90% completed anyhow.

The tree won, move on

[mudslag]

 

 

 

Mercedes Benz debunks the theory that the car of Wikileaking journalist Michael Hastings ?just blew up? upon impact. Journalists have consulted leading University Physics professors in the Los Angeles area, who all agreed that the placement of the engine defied expectations of a normal crash scenario.

 

Police and reporters on the scene confirm there were NO skid marks, both explaining the videos of the speeding car. (Gag order issued for Police and Firefighters responders to scene of Wikileaking Journalist assassination,  The Political Blind Spot July 11, 2013)

 

 

 

 

 

Where is this Mercedes Benz debunked info? As for the crash itself, here is the "supposed" video though not confirmed. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNgTtIaP8Bs

 

 

FYI cars can explode on impact, though rare, it does happen. 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sj9yTWP1fA'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyUwo7x9D5Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIsdSeL0-sA&feature=youtu.be&t=6s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvFPa4VO2RE&feature=youtu.be&t=1m23s

[Growled Member]

I wouldn't be too surprised by anything the government would do either, though.