2010 Game Changer

Huffington Post names Hastings one of 2010’s Game Changers in Politics for “The Runaway General”:

In late June 2010, the unpopular war in Afghanistan was dragging on, but had fallen off the front page. Then came the “Runaway General,” a blockbuster Rolling Stone article by Hastings, who had just spent most of the spring hanging out with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, and his entourage. They sounded out of control: McChrystal’s aides slagged Vice President Joe Biden and boasted that their boss had intimidated President Obama. For his part, McChrystal was unabashedly dismissive of his State Department colleagues. Hastings exposed a fraying strategy and an out-of-control military. After the article was published, the president forced McChrystal to step down and Afghanistan was once again on the front page.