BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith delivers some sad news: Michael Hastings died early Tuesday in a car crash in Los Angeles. He was 33.
“We are shocked and devastated by the news that Michael Hastings is gone. 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. He wrote stories that would otherwise have gone unwritten, and without him there are great stories that will go untold. Michael was also a wonderful, generous colleague and a joy to work with. Our thoughts are with Elise and and the rest of his family and we are going to miss him.”
Hastings is probably best known for his Rolling Stone piece that ultimately cost Gen. Stanley McChrystal his job as the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Hastings made a name for himself covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and previously worked for GQ and Newsweek. You can find his Rolling Stone archives here, his BuzzFeed stuff here, and his IAm Reddit thread from last year here.
Update at 7:46 p.m.: Rolling Stone has its obit up, which you can check out here.
