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FirmhandKY -> RE: Should McChrystal be fired for the Rolling Stone interview? (6/26/2010 7:28:49 AM)
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FR:
Back on-topic.
The reporters take:
Writer defends role in demise of Stanley McChrystal
June 26, 2010 12:00AM
THE man who, in effect, ended General Stanley McChrystal's glittering military career says he thought he was "unfireable".
In a candid interview yesterday, journalist Michael Hastings said he never imagined he would get so much access to the general and his inner circle. He insisted he was simply doing his job as a reporter and denied that his methods were underhand.
Hastings's devastating expose of General McChrystal and his aides led US President Barack Obama to dismiss the man credited widely as the mastermind of the US strategy in Afghanistan.
"I realised that it was very strong material for a profile," Hastings, 30, said. "But I thought McChrystal was unfireable. I thought his position was very well protected."
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"They are fun guys to hang out with," Hastings told The Times. "They are impressive people. I just don't know if their solution for Afghanistan is appropriate."
The freelance reporter, who grew up in Vermont and upstate New York, denied he set out to have General McChrystal fired. "It was to get people to say, 'Hey, what's going on in Afghanistan?'. It's often as if America doesn't even realise it's fighting two wars."
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"War is not something abstract to me," he said. "Many of my friends have suffered immensely. I just want to make sure that the sacrifices are worth it."... From 2005 to 2007, he was the magazine's correspondent in Baghdad, until his girlfriend was killed in an ambush. Soon afterwards, he wrote a memoir, How I Lost My Love In Baghdad. It received mixed reviews, with The New York Times pointing to a "whiff of exploitation".
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In an article for GQ about campaign journalism, Hastings wrote: "You pretend to be friendly and non-threatening, 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 f . . k them over." That, and the extraordinary level of access that Hastings enjoyed with General McChrystal, prompted a Fox News commentator to describe him as a "rat in an eagle's nest". One rival reporter in Kabul dismissed his McChrystal profile as "people bitching about Washington. What's new?"
Firm
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