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June 19, 2013
Mercedes. Ass. Bang!
Famed Non-Automotive Journalist Michael Hastings Turns A Mercedes C250 Into A “Bomb” “The fearless journalist whose reporting brought down the career of General Stanley McChrystal”, died in a single-car accident in Los Angeles yesterday morning. This in and of itself is not unusual, but the circumstances of the crash and its aftermath won’t do anything to quiet the conspiracy theorists who are already claiming that the military-industrial complex found a way to cap the guy.Posted by gerardvanderleun at June 19, 2013 4:34 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
Then again, perhaps he was just an idiot.
Posted by: Capt. Obvious at June 19, 2013 6:33 PM
“I don’t know what his state of mind was at 4:30 in the morning, but I do know what his state of mind was in general, and it was a nervous wreck.”
Suicide, nuts, or both. Good thing he didn't take anyone with him, and probably a good thing he won't be writing any more stories. Yeah, the media doesn't get a lot of sympathy from me, they're evil.
Posted by: chuck at June 19, 2013 6:43 PM
Posted by: chuck at June 19, 2013 7:02 PM
Eh. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of foul play. I'd just say that speeding on surface streets in LA at 4:30 in the morning, losing control of the car, fishtailing (which is probably what the guy was thinking of), jumping the median, hitting a tree and going boom (both literally and figuratively) is very doable without any outside help whatsoever.
Posted by: Rich Fader at June 19, 2013 8:00 PM
Well hell these days who knows maybe they're right.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 19, 2013 8:48 PM
Whatever the dynamics behind the accident, it serves as a "horse's head in the bed" for others, especially journalists.
Think Hoffa; think grassy knoll. Message conveyed in bold, in all caps:
DON'T COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES.
Posted by: chasmatic at June 20, 2013 5:40 AM
Hastings said many times that his inspiration was Hunter Thompson, and at his age it's inevitable that he believed "journalism" was reflected most perfectly by Woodward and Bernstein and the Watergate hoohah.
Unblushingly, the story was him, in all respects. His (probably self-written) exit scene couldn't have been better crafted in terms of maintaining the focus on the writer instead of the news.
This guy was in every way the problem, not the solution.
Posted by: Rob De Witt at June 20, 2013 8:39 AM
Hey, his last column attacked the dems and obama...
That definitely can prove to be dangerous.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mhastings/why-democrats-love-to-spy-on-americans
Posted by: Uncle Jefe at June 20, 2013 9:11 AM
Hey, Breitbart had a bad heart, Chris Kyle ran into a "lone wolf"...these things happen in this time of extraordinary coincidences.
Posted by: Will at June 21, 2013 10:50 AM