Michael Hastings, Journalist Whose Work Led To Firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Dies At 33

by UInterviewJune 19, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

Michael Hastings, an award-winning journalist and writer, died in a car crash in Los Angeles early Tuesday morning. He was 33 years old.

The fatal accident, which occurred around 4:15 am, was violent and fiery. The car crashed into a tree in the 600 block of North Highland Avenue. The car then burst into flames and, due to impact, had its engine thrown into a yard about 100 feet away. After the car made impact, it burst into high-reaching flames. At least one neighbor was seen using his watering hose to try and stop the fire.

Hastings was perhaps best known for exposing retired US Army general Stanley McChrystal in the 2010 Rolling Stone article “The Runaway General.” In the article, which is credited with ending his military career, McChrystal candidly criticized President Barack Obama and his administration. Hastings won a 2010 George Polk Award for the article, which was also the basis for his book The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan.

BuzzFeed, the news site where Hastings worked as a reporter for at the time of his death, released a statement Tuesday evening. “We are shocked and devastated by the news that Michael Hastings is gone,” CEO 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.”

Will Dana, the managing editor at Rolling Stone, also expressed his sadness for the loss of Hastings. “I'm sad that I'll never get to publish all the great stories that he was going to write, and sad that he won't be stopping by my office for any more short visits which would stretch for two or three completely engrossing hours,” he wrote.

Hastings is survived by his wife of two years, journalist Elise Jordan.

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