ABOUT MICHAEL HASTINGS - ROLLING STONE WRITER

by Audrey Phillips

Before I start this blog...I wonder how many people have actually read the article in Rolling Stone magazine about General McChrystal.  That's one of the problems in our country today, starting with our Congressional and Senate leaders, everybody has an opinion but very few people read things for themselves.

I have read the article and have to admit that Michael Hastings is an exceptional writer.  BUT...if Michael Hastings can write an article that costs a general his position, without a trial, then what high-profile person might be next?  Think about it!  Maybe McChrystal deserved to lose his job but he should have been allowed a congressional interview to decide the matter and not leave it up to Michael Hastings.

I am not sure if Hastings was out to get McChrystal or not, maybe he was and maybe he wasn't.  What I do know is that writers can paint/draw mental profiles of people and make them believable to the reader.  Whatever!  The article pictured McChrystal as a "cocky" general who was definitely not a "yes man" to anyone.  His biggest fault was to be in favor of the counterinsurgency.  He thought the way to win the war was to try and win the hearts of the people.  His controversial command to the troops to hold fire until they absolutely had to fire was due to one of his beliefs, "Kill one civilian and you create 10 enemies."

I think the real reason that he lost his job was the quote by someone at Rolling Stone (maybe Hastings?) who summarized the article in one sentence.  Check it out in the heading of the article:   http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236?RS_show_page=0

"Stanley McChrystal, Obama's top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House."

Some people might think that I have become obsessed with the Michael Hastings article in Rolling Stone that cost McChrystal his job.  Maybe I am.  Maybe it is because I am a writer.  My obsession with truthful writing started many years ago when the "rag" magazines began to write obvious lies to sell their product.  I think it is absolutely ludicrous that they can sell that trash. 

I don't think Hastings outright lied in his article but he has been quoted as saying that "unbiased journalistic reporting is a fallacy."  Hasting's values are questionable.  He admits to booking all of his hotels according to the quality of the pornographic material that is offered on their television service. 

What I can't get through my thick head is why his article is taken by everyone as being 100% true, as if it was written by the apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament in the bible.

Michael Hastings did an interview with GQ magazine and stated how he obtains his stories.  I searched the Internet and came up with some interesting information on Hastings.  I now have mixed feelings about him.

This is only one excerpt/statement from that GQ interview by Hastings:

The dance with staffers is a perilous one. You’re probably not going to get much, if any, one-on-one time with the candidate, which means your sources of information are the people who work for him. So you pretend to be friendly and nonthreatening, and over time you “build trust,” which everybody involved knows is an illusion. If the time comes, if your editor calls for it, you’re supposed to fuck them over; and they’ll throw you under a bus without much thought, too. (I should say that personal friendships can actually develop, despite the odds.) For the top campaign officials and operatives, seduction and punishment of reporters is an art. Write this fluff piece now; we’ll give you something good later. No, don’t write it this way, write it that way. We’ll give you something good later.

For more regarding Michael Hastings, the Internet is full of articles.  I found the following one to be an interesting critique of Hastings and written by Paul Wells:

http//www2.macleans.ca/2010/06/22/gen-mcchrystal-gets-hacked

This is the first URL that I have run across the has www2. (without a period between the w's and the 2) so it is not a mistake in my typing.

I feel as if the modern media journalists/commentators, whichever way they lean...either liberal or conservative, constantly attempt to brainwash (my words, not theirs) us into viewing people and situations from the same perspective as they view the world.  We must be on guard for this manipulation and "keep an open mind" about things that dramatically affect us now and that will also have an impact on future generations.  We are living in perilous times.