A journalist job is to print the truth, and hopefully their editor will have the guts to print what the journalist finds out. Mike Hastings will no longer be an embed journalist in Afghanistan. It appears he won't be returning to the front line because he wrote down what General McChrystal said about the president.
Leaks seem to be a big issue when it comes to the war in Afghanistan, and the war effort will only be hampered by more reports of generals and other officers bashing the president.
The other issue is the war in Afghanistan isn't going the way it should, and some of that could be because McChrystal's rules of engagement that seemed to protect the Taliban more than his own soldiers. A fact that he wasn't a popular general because of his policies only seemed to get more attention after his Rolling Stone article.
Mike Hastings may have stepped over some imaginary line when he published General McChrystal's comments, but was he doing it as a way to save the lives of American soldiers or as a way to make a name for himself?
The article gave Hastings's media recognition, but it also caused him to lose his job in Afghanistan because the people in charge can't trust him.
It does appear that Hastings' is casualty of timing. If WikiLeaks hadn't published secret documents about the war in Afghanistan, maybe Hastings would still be an embed journalist.
The United States seems to be fighting a PR war in Afghanistan, and can't afford stories that show generals dislike for a policy or that the United States doesn't trust the corrupt Afghanistan government.
Hastings did what he thought was right, and maybe he shouldn't be shocked that he won't be going back to the front lines. It does appear that some fear he might print more secret talks or print something about what he sees in the front lines. It is censorship because Hastings isn't afraid to tell the truth, and now he won't get a chance to report what is going on in Afghanistan right now.
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