Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

[Luther Blissett]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ne ... 3-20130618

Michael Hastings, the fearless journalist whose reporting brought down the career of General Stanley McChrystal, has died in a car accident in Los Angeles, Rolling Stone has learned. He was 33.

[Luther Blissett]

phawker (@phawker) tweeted at 9:12pm - 18 Jun 13:

Probably last footage of #michaelhastings alive, w/ @jeremyscahill @ screening of Dirty Wars. Oddly soulful, this. vine.co/v/bldqqAiz3Jq (https://twitter.com/phawker/status/347160009429372929)

[justdrew]

cars in LA are ever able to move fast enough to result in fatal accidents?

it was a one car accident

[MinM]

***
Rolling Stone: Army Used Psy-Ops on Senators

[justdrew]

so he hit a tree, the safest thing on the car should be the fuel tank

[Iamwhomiam]

Right, Drew. Perhaps an incendiary device went off inside the passenger compartment before he lost control and ran into the tree?

[Luther Blissett]

According to his own twitter feed, he was working on a story about the persecution of journalist Barrett Brown.

[bks]

Holy shit. I'm stunned.

[justdrew]

some comments saying crashes into trees while speeding are 'common' there. There must be other pictures, let's see how many of the cars, 'burst into flames'

[8bitagent]

Right in the middle of the Snowden/Manning trial/public discussion on NSA wiretaps and hot on the heels of the death of Aaron Schwartz.
And he just attended a screening of Dirty Wars?

Wink and a nod folks, wink and a nod.

[Hunter]

Holy Cow, this crazy, I was just reading his tweets the other day. Seemed like a real good guy.

[Hunter]

Lets just hope this is exactly what it appears to be, an unfortunate accident that happened to what seemed to be a very good guy trying to expose bad stuff in the world. Because if it is not that, the implications are just too much to consider...nah, I dont even want to.


RIP MH you will be missed.

[Nordic]

This is bullshit and is freaking me out. I read about this crash earlier today, before they had released the identity of the driver. And it struck me then as just being bizarre as hell. Then when I found out who it was I was very disturbed.

I've driven down this street a million times. You don't lose control of your car going down that street. It's not a highway. It's as straight as an arrow. And it was 4 am on a fucking monday night. Possibly the only time there's no traffic in LA. Let's just discuss the odds of this freak accident happening when and where it did TO A GUY WHO HAPPENED TO HAVE BROUGHT DOWN ONE OF THE MOST BRUTAL GENERALS IN ONE OF HISTORY'S MOST EVIL EMPIRES.

Walks like a duck, talks like a duck .....

[Nordic]

Oh, also this reminds me a great deal of the case of Katherine Smith in Memphis back in 2002.

Can't find the link I used to have, but this one will suffice:

http://www.sptimes.com/2002/02/17/World ... s_fe.shtml

Very similar MO. Fiery car crash at night, no witnesses to speak of, body burned beyond recognition. In the Memphis case it turned out the woman had alreafy died and had been planted behind the wheel. I wouldn't be the least surprised if that was the case here. Too bad the LAPD can't exactly be counted on to do their damn job. How were they with that RFK murder again?

[Hunter]

4 am, I wonder what that means. Pay close attention to what happens now, if there is a smear campaign coming then they will introduce drugs or drink in to the story somehow and taint everything the guy has ever done.


IMO Hastings was a very good guy and one of the real genuine and sincere investigative reporters out there, he wrote at the same desk the great Hunter Thompson did when he was at Rolling Stone and I dont make a habit of comparing anyone to the Good Doctor but Hastings filled those boots well.

Lets see what happens next and that will tell us a lot about what happened at 4 am that morning, that is an awfully good time to run someone off the road with no witnesses around, just sayin.


Whats the deal with him seeing Dirty Wars, is it being suggested he was leaving the screening of it when he died? So that was the last thing he did and would explain being out at 4 am on a weekday?