Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby beeline » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:10 pm

CW - I've been in a old VW beetle when the driver decided to scare the bajeezus out of me and my fellow passengers back in my immediate post-high-school daze ... we were driving down a now abandoned (its become part of a park) road in the middle of the night and he suddenly pulls the E-Brake (and turned the wheel hard, I think) and we did a 360 ... all of us screaming bloody-murder! It was quite a rush - thankfully I didn't soil myself.


What your talking about is a handbrake turn. I do them all the time when it snows in my manual-transmission Corolla. Good fun, and yes, it will make some reach for the oh-shit handle if they don't know it's coming.
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby Hunter » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:13 pm

I dont have a clue what happened but I am very upset by this, I had sent Hastings a PM on twitter Sunday evening telling him thank you for everything he has done and how much so many of us appreciate him, he actually took the time to respond and said he appreciated it. I have always felt Michael was one of the truly special human beings alive today and as they say, only the good die young, this is a HUGE loss for all of us, so big and so sad.
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby Hunter » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:16 pm

beeline » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:10 pm wrote:
CW - I've been in a old VW beetle when the driver decided to scare the bajeezus out of me and my fellow passengers back in my immediate post-high-school daze ... we were driving down a now abandoned (its become part of a park) road in the middle of the night and he suddenly pulls the E-Brake (and turned the wheel hard, I think) and we did a 360 ... all of us screaming bloody-murder! It was quite a rush - thankfully I didn't soil myself.


What your talking about is a handbrake turn. I do them all the time when it snows in my manual-transmission Corolla. Good fun, and yes, it will make some reach for the oh-shit handle if they don't know it's coming.
Yeap that is a commonly used tactic by stunt men in movies, it can be fun once you get the hang of it.
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby stickdog99 » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:19 pm

When you see the engine and transmission being ejected and the car exploding into a giant fireball, think zebras.
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby Canadian_watcher » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:20 pm

JackRiddler » Thu Jun 20, 2013 10:18 am wrote:Is it possible to tamper with the sophisticated modern car electronics programmed to intervene by temporarily governing speed and even steering, either on the unit or by some exotic remote control?

By the way, "The Lone Gunmen" pilot episode strikes again.


I wasnt paying close attention to that video (upthread, female speaker) but I am pretty sure that and other remote control tech is what she was speaking about. You will likely find your answer in there.

And they can do it with planes, right? Remote control cars..? seems like old tech. ;)

Lone Gunmen you say? I'll have to check that out.. what part are you specifying, do you remember whereabouts it is on the show?
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby Canadian_watcher » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:21 pm

beeline » Thu Jun 20, 2013 11:10 am wrote:
CW - I've been in a old VW beetle when the driver decided to scare the bajeezus out of me and my fellow passengers back in my immediate post-high-school daze ... we were driving down a now abandoned (its become part of a park) road in the middle of the night and he suddenly pulls the E-Brake (and turned the wheel hard, I think) and we did a 360 ... all of us screaming bloody-murder! It was quite a rush - thankfully I didn't soil myself.


What your talking about is a handbrake turn. I do them all the time when it snows in my manual-transmission Corolla. Good fun, and yes, it will make some reach for the oh-shit handle if they don't know it's coming.


i couldn't believe I lived!
Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.-- Jonathan Swift

When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him. -- Jonathan Swift
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby justdrew » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:26 pm

has to be front wheel drive to do a good handbreak skid IIRC (been a long time)

also the emergency break has to be of the right type, they typically only stop one wheel, I vaguely remember breaking the cable or someone telling me of someone who broke the cable doing it.




btw, that Jim Stone guy is full on antisemitic as it gets. I wouldn't trust a thing he says. Particularly after his 'take' on this incident. My intuition tells me he's just lying about the events that supposedly occurred to him. Although I'm not convinced "he" is not a construct.
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby Hunter » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:46 pm

Did you know he lost a fiance to a road side bomb, in Afghanistan. I wonder if it was someone he met there or his girl was traveling with him?
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby justdrew » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:53 pm

Alchemy » 20 Jun 2013 09:46 wrote:Did you know he lost a fiance to a road side bomb, in Afghanistan. I wonder if it was someone he met there or his girl was traveling with him?


Iraq actually

At age twenty-five, Michael Hastings arrived in Baghdad to cover the war in Iraq for Newsweek. He had at his disposal a little Hemingway romanticism and all the apparatus of a twenty-first-century reporter -- cell phones, high-speed Internet access, digital video cameras, fixers, drivers, guards, translators. In startling detail, he describes the chaos, the violence, the never-ending threats of bomb and mortar attacks, the front lines that can be a half mile from the Green Zone, that can be anywhere. This is a new kind of war: private security companies follow their own rules or lack thereof; soldiers in combat get instant messages from their girlfriends and families; members of the Louisiana National Guard watch Katrina's decimation of their city on a TV in the barracks.

Back in New York, Hastings had fallen in love with Andi Parhamovich, a young idealist who worked for Air America. A year into their courtship, Andi followed Michael to Iraq, taking a job with the National Democratic Institute. Their war-zone romance is another window into life in Baghdad. They call each other pet names; they make plans for the future; they fight, usually because each is fearful for the other's safety; and they try to figure out how to get together, when it means putting bodyguards and drivers in jeopardy.Then Andi goes on a dangerous mission for her new employer -- a meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters that ends in catastrophe.

Searing, unflinching, and revelatory, I Lost My Love in Baghdad is both a raw, brave, brilliantly observed account of the war and a heartbreaking story of one life lost to it.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Parhamovich
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby Hunter » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:55 pm

Here is a quick list of all the good stuff Mr Hastings wrote:
Drones:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ne ... t-20120416
Assange interview:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ne ... w-20120118
Psyops used on congressmen:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ne ... s-20110223

American's last prisoner of war:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ne ... r-20120607

This one is especially good, it is the emails exchanged between Hastings and Hillary Clinton's aide, good stuff!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitic ... o-fuck-off



On Sunday morning, BuzzFeed correspondent Michael Hastings emailed Philippe Reines, Hillary Clinton’s longtime aide and personal spokesman at the State Department, asking a series of pointed questions about State’s handling of the Benghazi fiasco, and Reines’ over-the-top attack on CNN. The emails quickly got personal, with Reines calling Hastings an “unmitigated asshole” before an exchange of harsh words on both sides.

The email chain concluded with Reines writing that Hastings should “Fuck Off” and “Have a good life.”

The full exchange (with one typo fixed) is below.

From: Michael Hastings

Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 10:32 AM

To: Reines, Philippe I 

Subject: Request for comment



Hey Philippe:

A few quick questions for you. Why didn’t the State Department search the consulate and find AMB Steven’s diary first? What other potential valuable intelligence was left behind that could have been picked up by apparently anyone searching the grounds? Was any classified or top secret material also left? Do you still feel that there was adequate security at the compound, considering it was not only overrun but sensitive personal effects and possibly other intelligence remained out for anyone passing through to pick up? Your statement on CNN sounded pretty defensive—do you think it’s the media’s responsibility to help secure State Department assets overseas after they’ve been attacked?

Let me know if you have a second.Michael

______________________________________
On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 11:28 AM, Reines, Philippe I wrote:


Good morning Michael

I’m adding my colleague Toria Nuland who I believe you know. She has addressed much of your questions below during her daily press briefings, so I’ll let her weigh in to remind you of what’s already been thoroughly answered. As far as the tone of my email, I think you’re misreading mine as much as I’m misreading yours as being needlessly antagonistic.

But on your questions pertaining to CNN’s handling of the diary:

• You know that all USG personnel were evacuated from Benghazi after the attack. So I’m not sure why you’re asking why State didn’t find the diary first.

• On material, I’ll let Toria reiterate, but the answer is no. Though you might want to ask CNN if they took anything else from the crime scene that they haven’t yet told anyone about.

• In terms of the media’s responsibility, I’ll start with the outlandish statement that I believe the media does have responsibilities. Your question seems to imply they have none and any expectation of responsible behavior is too much to ask. To be specific:I believe CNN had the responsibility to act as human beings and be sensitive to their loss when they first approached the family.

I believe CNN had a responsibility to not make promises to the family it would not keep.

If that’s too much to ask, I believe CNN had at the very least a responsibility to make their intentions on the use of Chris’s diary clear to the family from the outset.

I believe CNN had a responsibility to not deceive its own viewers for more than 48 hours on the source of their reporting, using convoluted attribution they themselves had to clarify, before admitting it was the diary they were relying on.

I believe that when they finally did admit to using Chris’s diary, they had a responsibility to their viewers and to the family to explain why they broke their pledge.

I believe that many within CNN agree with everything I’m saying.

More than anything else, I believe that CNN - since they had already read every word of the diary before calling the family on Friday the 14th, the day Chris’s remains were returned home - had all the information they needed at that point to make an editorial decision on whether the contents of the diary compelled them to report on it. I believe the time to invoke their standards to justify using the diary came six days late. I believe that CNN, if they felt strongly that they had an obligation to use the diary should never have presented the family with a choice in the first place that they’d later disregard.

I don’t believe that CNN should get credit for issuing a flimsy confession only when caught with their hands in the cookie jar. I believe the statement CNN issued late last night, 24 hours after Anderson Cooper’s ill-conceived statement on air, basically says they agreed not to use it until they didn’t feel like it anymore, and only admitted to it when they were about to be caught. I don’t believe that’s much of a profile in courage.

Lastly, I believe that you of all people, after famously being accused of violating agreed upon ground rules and questionable sourcing, would agree that it’s important for a news organization to maintain its own integrity if it is to be trusted. That begins with keeping its word. If you can’t manage that, then don’t give it.


I realize that the way this works is that you only you get to ask me questions, but I have one for you: if you were in Benghazi, went to the scene of the attack, found the ambassador’s diary, read every word of it, would you have called them and asked their permission to use it, then when you weren’t granted that permission agree that you wouldn’t use it in any way, and then a few days later just change your mind?

If the answer is yes, then you obviously agree that CNN handled this perfectly fine.

If the answer is no, if you would have decided its contents demanded reporting immediately, how would you have handled this differently then CNN?

And you should feel free to use every word above, in its entirety. Though I suspect you won’t.

Philippe

______________________________________
From: Michael Hastings
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 12:04 PM

To: Reines, Philippe I 
Cc: Nuland, Victoria J

Subject: Re: Request for comment

Philippe:

Thanks for getting back to me. No, you read my email correctly—I found your statement to CNN offensive.

From my perspective, the scandal here is that the State Department had such inadequate security procedures in place that four Americans were killed. And then the Ambassador’s diary—and who knows what else—was left behind for anyone to pick up. Thankfully, it was CNN—and not Al Qaeda or some other militia—that found it and was able to return it to the family. That CNN used portions of the material in the diary they found at the scene—material that appears to contradict the official version of events that State/WH has been putting out—is completely in line with practices of good journalism.

I don’t know how involved Arwa Damon has been in this. But for what it’s worth, Arwa is one of the best war correspondents working today. She’s consistently risked her life to get these stories, and to find out what actually happens in these conflict zones.I do agree that the media has lots of responsibilities, and CNN fulfilled its responsibility by returning the diary while still managing to inform the American public of newsworthy information. So it’s unfortunate that you are trying to make a scapegoat out of CNN. That State was forced to flee Benghazi—again, because of such inadequate security, leaving behind all sorts of sensitive information—tells us more about DoS than CNN.

The misinformation here seems largely to be coming from State and the administration. The defense that the administration has offered that there was no intelligence warning of an attack is weak. If there was no intel, then clearly the CIA and other intel agents stationed in Benghazi weren’t doing their jobs well. If there was intel, then we have some kind of cover-up—whether out of incompetence or ass covering before the election or just the trauma of losing four good men, it’s hard for me to say at this point.


All the best,


Michael

______________________________________
On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 12:45 PM, Reines, Philippe I wrote:


Why do you bother to ask questions you’ve already decided you know the answers to?

______________________________________
From: Michael Hastings
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 12:50 PM

To: Reines, Philippe I 
Cc: Nuland, Victoria J

Subject: Re: Request for comment 



Why don’t you give answers that aren’t bullshit for a change?

______________________________________
On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 1:38 PM, Reines, Philippe I wrote:

I now understand why the official investigation by the Department of the Defense as reported by The Army Times The Washington Post concluded beyond a doubt that you’re an unmitigated asshole.

How’s that for a non-bullshit response?

Now that we’ve gotten that out of our systems, have a good day.

And by good day, I mean Fuck Off

______________________________________
From: Michael Hastings
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 01:40 PM

To: Reines, Philippe I 
Cc: Nuland, Victoria J

Subject: Re: Request for comment

Hah—I now understand what women say about you, too! Any new complaints against you lately?

______________________________________
On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 1:48 PM, Reines, Philippe I wrote:


Talk about bullshit - answer me this: Do you only traffic in lies, or are you on the ground floor of creating them?

And since Fuck Off wasn’t clear enough, I’m done with you. Inside of 5 minutes when I can log into my desktop, you’ll be designated as Junk Mail.

Have a good life Michael.

______________________________________
From: Michael Hastings 

Date: Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 1:50 PM

Subject: Re: Request for comment

To: “Reines, Philippe I” 
Cc: “Nuland, Victoria J”


I’ll take that as a non-denial denial.

All the best,

Michael
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby Hunter » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:56 pm

justdrew » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:53 pm wrote:
Alchemy » 20 Jun 2013 09:46 wrote:Did you know he lost a fiance to a road side bomb, in Afghanistan. I wonder if it was someone he met there or his girl was traveling with him?


Iraq actually

At age twenty-five, Michael Hastings arrived in Baghdad to cover the war in Iraq for Newsweek. He had at his disposal a little Hemingway romanticism and all the apparatus of a twenty-first-century reporter -- cell phones, high-speed Internet access, digital video cameras, fixers, drivers, guards, translators. In startling detail, he describes the chaos, the violence, the never-ending threats of bomb and mortar attacks, the front lines that can be a half mile from the Green Zone, that can be anywhere. This is a new kind of war: private security companies follow their own rules or lack thereof; soldiers in combat get instant messages from their girlfriends and families; members of the Louisiana National Guard watch Katrina's decimation of their city on a TV in the barracks.

Back in New York, Hastings had fallen in love with Andi Parhamovich, a young idealist who worked for Air America. A year into their courtship, Andi followed Michael to Iraq, taking a job with the National Democratic Institute. Their war-zone romance is another window into life in Baghdad. They call each other pet names; they make plans for the future; they fight, usually because each is fearful for the other's safety; and they try to figure out how to get together, when it means putting bodyguards and drivers in jeopardy.Then Andi goes on a dangerous mission for her new employer -- a meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters that ends in catastrophe.

Searing, unflinching, and revelatory, I Lost My Love in Baghdad is both a raw, brave, brilliantly observed account of the war and a heartbreaking story of one life lost to it.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Parhamovich



Thank you for that, I wasnt sure if it was Iraq or Afghanistan and should indicted such. I saw that book I Lost My Love in Baghdad and had wondered what it was about, now I know!
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby elfismiles » Thu Jun 20, 2013 1:02 pm

Scott Horton is interviewing Jason Leopold right now ... he just got through talking with Mr. Leopold about his friendship with Hastings.
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby JackRiddler » Thu Jun 20, 2013 1:03 pm

Oh god, what a story. With the fiance.

So sad.

And the PM with alchemy, too.
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby conniption » Thu Jun 20, 2013 1:14 pm

Rachel Maddow Pays Tribute To Michael Hastings

4:56 min

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDywibWxOow
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Re: Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

Postby Hunter » Thu Jun 20, 2013 1:17 pm

JackRiddler » Thu Jun 20, 2013 1:03 pm wrote:Oh god, what a story. With the fiance.

So sad.

And the PM with alchemy, too.

I had been sitting on twitter Sunday evening watching Greenwald and Hastings pretty much rip a couple of Journalists new ones when they were calling Snowden a traitor, Greenwald and Hastings pretty much said the same thing "you call yourself journalist and say shit like that." I was so moved by it that I sent him a PM to just thank him for being who he is, and to my surprise he immediately responded back, which doesnt happen often with 'famous people,' in fact he and John Mcafee are the only ones who have responded to the few I have sent and Mcaffe and I have ended up having some great conversations, that is another guy whom I am grown to have a lot of respect for also.

But yea, when I heard this news my heart just sank as I had just spoken to him a day before and I couldnt believe this was actually happening. It may turn out he was just going too fast, obviously with his line of work he had to be the adventurist type so it wouldnt be a shock to learn he was just having a little fun on the open road at 4 am but being that WIKILEAKS has said he contacted them a few hours earlier about him now being investigated by the fbi and then their other tweet about a non public complication wrt his death, whatever the fuck that means, I am absolutely going to keep an open mind on his death. Hastings pissed off a lot of very powerful people, he was a bit of a smart ass about it too, which I say with great admiration, so it wouldnt come as a big surprise to learn some of them wanted the guy silenced.


Hastings was fresh air in a very stuffy world.
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