Michael Hastings Dead: Reporter, Author Dies In Car Crash At Age 33

Journalist Michael Hastings died in a car crash in Los Angeles early Tuesday at the age of 33, according to a statement from his employer, BuzzFeed.

Hastings, who was also a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was perhaps best known for his candid Rolling Stone interview with General Stanley McChrystal, then the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, that eventually led to McChrystal being relieved of his command.

He was also the author of two books about America's wars: The Operators, detailing the flaws of the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan, and I Lost My Love In Baghdad, about his experiences as a war correspondent in Iraq during his mid-twenties.

Hastings joined BuzzFeed in April 2012 to cover the presidential election.

He is survived by his wife, Elise Jordan.

"We are shocked and devastated by the news that Michael Hastings is gone,"BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith said in a statement. "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."

Rolling Stone managing editor Will Dana also remembered Hastings' uncompromising, aggressive reporting style. "Great reporters exude a certain kind of electricity," Dana said in Rolling Stone's obituary, "the sense that there are stories burning inside them, and that there's no higher calling or greater way to live life than to be always relentlessly trying to find and tell those stories. I'm sad that I'll never get to publish all the great stories that he was going to write, and sad that he won't be stopping by my office for any more short visits which would stretch for two or three completely engrossing hours."

Hastings' dedication to journalism shines through in ten pieces of advice for young journalists that he shared on Reddit last year. "Mainly you really have to love writing and reporting. Like it's more important to you than anything else in your life--family, friends, social life, whatever," he wrote.