Michael Hastings Lands Book Deal Following Rolling Stone McChrystal Bombshell

by Glynnis MacNicol | 12:08 pm, July 6th, 2010

» 12 comments

That was fast, though not unsurprising. Michael Hastings, whose bombshell Rolling Stone profile on General McChrystal made international headlines and resulted in the General’s firing has signed a book deal based on his article. From Little Brown’s announcement:

A forthcoming UNTITLED book by renowned journalist Michael Hastings, author of the Rolling Stone article “The Runaway General” which revealed shocking truths about General McChrystal and the war in Afghanistan, that promises an unprecedented behind-the-scenes account of America’s longest war, to Geoff Shandler, Editor in Chief, Little, Brown and Company, by Scott Moyers at the Wylie Agency.

The book will offer an unfiltered look at the war, and the soldiers, diplomats and politicians who are waging it. Based on exclusive reporting in Afghanistan, Europe, the Middle East and Washington, D.C., this landmark work of journalism will elucidate as never before our deeply troubling war in vivid, unforgettable detail.

Little, Brown Publisher Michael Pietsch says, “In his brilliant article Michael Hastings has already given us the clearest of insights into the disaster of America’s war in Afghanistan. He is a writer of extraordinary talent and his book will take us deeper and further into the war and its major architects, at a time when we need that clarity desperately.”

No word yet on how much the book sold for. UPDATE: Rumor has it the book went for seven figures, which is a rather serious chunk of change in this publishing environment. See below re name recognition. UPDATE #2: Did a million dollars sound too good to be true? Apparently it is. An executive familiar with the deal tells us Little Brown paid significantly less than 7 figures.

Regardless it’s a smart buy for Little Brown: name recognition is more than half the battle when it comes to selling books these days and between McChrystal, Rolling Stone, and Michael Hastings let’s just say this is not a subject or an author that will be unfamiliar to the public.

The McChrystal book is Hastings second about Iraq. In 2007 he authored a memoir about his time in Baghdad as a Newsweek correspondent and the death of his fiance in a car bombing there. At the time, the proposal for the memoir made some inner circle media waves after it was leaked to the Observer (who eventually took it down). No such surprises this time around…to put it mildly.

General Stanley McChrystal, Michael Hastings, Rolling Stone

http://www.facebook.com/people/Kam-Fet/572005492 Kam Fet

As expected!
Liberty Banned

It is because of “journalists” like this guy why so many members of the military are wary of the media. During my tours in Iraq, I came across many “reporters” and stayed far away. They would take one work or incident, take it out of context, and stab the warriors in the back for an article, or book deal. This guy ranks right up there with trial lawyers and politicians.
Liberty Banned

I remember one operation where a reporter tagged along. He was doing some stupid things, attracting some unwanted attention. A sniper shot him in the leg. When he went down a medic ran to his aid, and he got shot. We ended up getting both out of there before they were killed. A few months later we read an article by the reporter. He said he wasn’t made at the insurgent because the reporter was a “neutral” party, not taking sides.

One of us almost got killed trying to save that reporter. Than he has the balls to go back to the states and claim he was a “neutral” participant. Of course when he was in country he couldn’t leave the outpost without us because he would have been beheaded by the jihadists. We emailed his editor, and him, and told him that since he was a “neutral” observer we should have left him right there on the side of that Ramadi road.
libra blue

“He is a writer of extraordinary talent.” Really? Hastings should write a book about the fine art of “sandbagging” because, based on the 2008 GQ article, that is where his so-called talent lies. He will squeeze as much out of his 15 minutes as he can. Hastings obviously has an agenda and cannot be considered an objective “reporter” by any stretch of the imagination.

Thanks to Geraldo he has a title for his book: “Rat in an Eagle’s Nest”, which sums this scumbag up pretty well.
AndyZNYer

“not unsurprising”??

you mean, surprising? or, did you mean to say, “not surprisingly…”
BatBoy

How sad for us!
Eliza

I for one am happy to hear this news. Despite what critics may say, Hastings is a well-accomplished journalist and excellent writer. If this book is even half as informative and engaging as his memoir, it will be a must read.
Karol

This guy is an opportunist; not a journalist.
Liberty Banned

Eliza said:
I for one am happy to hear this news. Despite what critics may say, Hastings is a well-accomplished journalist and excellent writer. If this book is even half as informative and engaging as his memoir, it will be a must read.

Well I guess Johnny Cochran was a good lawyer as well.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Alfred-J-Lemire/100000045361210 Alfred J. Lemire

Some dispute exists over whether Mr. Hastings was told that certain words and a private party he attended were “off the record” and he chose to ignore that ground rule. I believe Steve Francis, formerly of NBC, argued against Mr. Hastings’s apparent violation of ground rules on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Sunday.

I cannot recall a book publisher so directly inserting himself and his company into a current international and domestic politics disputes. Michael Pietsch supposedly said, “In his brilliant article Michael Hastings has already given us the clearest of insights into the disaster of America’s war in Afghanistan.” Imagine a publishing titan authorizing a book that would tell about the disaster of America’s war during Valley Forge, or, more recently, an attack on the war in Iraq before Gen. Petraeus got top-level approval for a change in war policy.

Gen. McChrystal reportedly is a liberal, which suggests he is deluded. He is perhaps also unaware of the low ethics current among the liberal media reporting/commentary gangs. A sensible person would know that anyone free-lancing for Rolling Stone would have little ethical restraint and close to zero awareness, understanding, or support for the reasons why the war began and why we stay.

Mr. Pietsch claimed that Mr. Hastings’s “book will take us deeper and further into the war and its major architects, at a time when we need that clarity desperately.” It is likely that the book will clarify only what the left imagines about the war and its “major architects.” The book might sell well: this country has enough drooling lefties in the academy, the mass media, and elsewhere to buy lots of copies. So maybe it’s good business and perhaps Little, Brown wants to be the left’s equivalent of Regnery.

I prefer what comes from Regnery.
http://lauriebethsgrotto.wordpress.com Laurie Beth

Congratulations to him. His first book is outstanding (reading it now) and I was hoping he’d pen another one. He’s a terrific author.
alanreese

Wow, it’s amazing how a majority of our right-leaning posters here are furious with Hastings over what is essentially a scathing condemnation of Obama’s handling of the war in Afghanistan, and a lifelong military man’s inability to succeed at politics (big surprise). I would assume most frustrations would be aimed at the individuals responsible for this waste of lives, time, and money, but instead they’re furious over a journalist who brought it to their attention.

Yes, this article caused an uproar among our largely ill-informed and semi-literate populous who will believe a statement to mean whatever their favorite radio/TV pundit tells them it means (and this applies to both sides of the spectrum), but one must realize that McChrystal’s dismissal has more to do with the White House’s embarrassment over being slammed by the general’s staff than anything Hasting’s article stated about that staff”s ability to succeed.

Obama inherited a mess and has not yet taken any well-researched actions to improve our situation. McC tried to implement the strategies that he felt were right, got shot down by a WH afraid of the public reaction to escalating our involvement, and got canned when the pissing contest finally becomes news.

We have become a nation of the willfully ignorant, we deserve the idiocracy we’ve been living under.