Michael Hastings went from crafting headlines to being one himself when he wrote “The Runaway General,” his now-infamous 2010 Rolling Stone article on General Stanley McChrystal. The profile included criticism of the Obama administration that McChrystal claimed had been “off the record,” and which eventually resulted in the General’s resignation. The story may have cost Hastings further access to high-ranking military officials, but it garnered him a book deal with Little, Brown.

Now, however, it would appear that Hastings’ book deal with the publisher has been canceled.

What does a former U.S. General do after being fired/retiring from the military in response to controversial statements he made about his boss, who just happens to be the leader of the free world? Needless to say, it’s not the most desirable state of unemployment. Luckily for Stanley McChrystal, however, the Ivy League had a job opening that only a man with his employment history could fill.

In a recent interview, Michael Hastings, author of the Rolling Stone article that led to the ousting of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, denied claims he broke any pre-arranged ground rules for his story, and added that he had another military embed in Afghanistan. The Pentagon, however, is denying him an embed assignment, citing trust problems.

So. Mediaite is a year old. Or, rather, a year and six days old. Or 1.02 years. As the site’s self-appointed data geek, I thought that this first birthday deserved a special data-oriented tribute.

Less than two weeks after Rolling Stone published its bombshell article on General Stanley McChrystal — and simultaneously a media agonistes — General David Petraeus has formally taken over as commander of the war Afghanistan at a time when “almost every phase of the war is going badly.”

In the aftermath of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s firing and inevitable resignation, Michael Hastings has appeared on a few programs defending himself. However, one of his most vocal defenders has been his fellow Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi. Having previously written a response to David Brooks’ comment on the subject, Taibbi published a response today to CBS’ Lara Logan where he did not mince words. How unminced was it? Well, the blog post was entitled, “Lara Logan, You Suck.”

Last night Bill O’Reilly and Bernie Goldberg discussed the case of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, neither of whom could figure out why Gen. McChrystal would be foolish enough to fall into the trap of big bad Rolling Stones reporter Michael Hastings who O’Reilly charmingly described as a “weasel with a capital ‘W.’” Finally though, the Factor host came up with a bulletproof theory: the reason McChrystal said all of those mean things about the Obama administration was because he’s secretly a liberal! Of course!

Less than a week after Gen. Stanley McChrystal was replaced as the commander of military efforts in Afghanistan, Fox News is reporting that the four star general intends to retire. McChrystal has been in service to the country since 1976.

President Obama may have solved his McChrystal problem but the long tail of the now-infamous Rolling Stone profile is still kicking around the media world. In his column today at the New York Times, David Carr takes Politico and Time to the woodshed for posting a full PDF of the McChrystal story before Rolling Stone made it available on their site.

Really? Former Speaker of the House, and current Fox News Analyst Newt Gingrich made a guest appearance on Fox and Friends this morning, and was asked by co-host Gretchen Carlson to opine on any correlation between President Obama‘s quick replacement of General McChrystal and his inability to stop the BP oil disaster, currently in its 67th day. Again…really? Yes really.

Newsflash: Rolling Stone has been doing war reporting – and political reporting, business reporting, news reporting – for decades now. And they’ve got the Ellies to prove it.

With Gen. Stanley McChrystal relieved of his Afghanistan duties in the wake of the Rolling Stone profile, the occasional TV talking head has put the blame on Michael Hastings for reporting too much.

But Hastings told Anderson Cooper last night that he believed Gen. McChrystal was “unfireable.”

On last night’s Factor, regular guest Bernie Goldberg was on to judge the media’s reaction to the Gen. Stanley McChrystal/Rolling Stone scandal, and it was mildly surprising to see both of them defend the magazine, even though the piece’s author, Michael Hastings, is a “card-carrying unabashed lefty.” More surprising, though, was to watch Goldberg turn on talk radio, saying it “depressed him” and that its “hypocrisy” on the matter “is enough to choke a horse.”

While Gen. Stanley McChrystal‘s military insubordination via ancient music mag garnered some sympathy for President Obama in a news cycle where he was already facing two wars, the worst environmental disaster in history, and a surge of opposition in Tuesday’s run-off elections, Fox & Friends’ Gretchen Carlson went one step further and offered the President empathy– because his job is “just like our job.”

Everyone has been talking about General Stanley McChrystal after the now-infamous Rolling Stone article was released, now resulting in President Obama‘s acceptance of his letter of resignation. Not many, however, have bothered to talk to Michael Hastings, the writer of the controversial story that started this mess – except for John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee at The Takeaway, who scooped everyone when they interviewed him yesterday morning

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) has already survived one brush with scandal after it was revealed in 2007 that he has once frequented a prostitute, and chances are he will survive this latest round if only because the story will likely get buried underneath McChrystal’s visit to the Oval Office today.

Jon Stewart predicted last night Gen. Stanley McChrystal would be headed for immediate resignation (he tapes his show in the early evening – maybe before Pres. Obama’s comments).

So although he may have more days to expand on the story later this week, he got some initial shots in during Tuesday’s show – including revealing an unused cover.

For the first half of today’s White House briefing, Robert Gibbs was a bundle of barely retrained disgust and anger, as he fielded questions about Gen. Stanley McChristal‘s disastrous Rolling Stone interview. Since the McChristal horse was in a post-mortem heap by the time he got around to me, I thought I might be able to draw a reaction out of Gibbs with a carefully executed question. While that didn’t quite work out, in retrospect, Gibbs may have signaled a surprise ending to tomorrow’s McChrystal-Obama tete a tete

The Gen. Stanley McChrystal Rolling Stone article story will not end today.

Pres. Obama made a brief statement today in a “press spray,” flanked by Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates, and White House correspondents seem to think the implication was McChrystal will keep his job.

As the Gen. Stanley McChrystal story continues to evolve one of the questions will inevitably be…what happens next?

Will the lengthy Rolling Stone profile signal his downfall, or will he survive to see another day. Let’s take a look five recent career-threatening profiles or interviews, and whether the subjects were able to keep their job?

Following the controversial Rolling Stone article that revealed “flippant and dismissive remarks about top Obama administration officials,” Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal‘s civilian press aide has announced his resignation.

The recent criticism by General Stanley McChrystal of the Obama Administration’s policy in Iraq was a very hot topic during today’s White House press briefing. And judging by the grave tone and open responses of Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, the General’s future in his current role appears to be uncertain at best. When asked by CBS’ Chip Reid if removing the General from his position was an option, Gibbs’ tersely replied “I would say all options are on the table.”

The Internet is buzzing today with news that President Obama has called on General Stanley McChrystal to head to Washington and explain himself regarding an interview to Rolling Stone in which he harshly criticized how Obama has handled the War in Afghanistan. However, readers looking to take a peek at the story that started all the kerfuffle have to dig way past a photo of Lady Gaga and her locked-and-loaded brassiere to find it.

For reasons that remain unclear General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, gave an interview to Rolling Stone magazine for a piece titled ‘The Runaway General’ in which he criticized the Obama administration’s handling of Iraq. Actually he ripped it to shreds. The article has reportedly “enraged” President Obama who has ordered McChrystal to hightail it back to Washington pronto to explain himself in person.

Time‘s Person of the Year can “Sometimes be surprising, sometimes be controversial, but always interesting,” as Meredith Vieira put it on this morning’s Today Show, where Time managing editor Richard Stengel announced the nominees. The same can be said of the list of finalists. A few were no-brainers (Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke), at least one was puzzling (The Chinese Worker? Really?). And some omissions (i.e. Twitter) may have been the biggest surprises of all: