Rolling Stone McChrystal Profile: Editor Surprised It Became 'Story Of The Day'

Yesterday, we made note of the curious way that Rolling Stone decided to roll out Michael Hastings's story "The Runaway General" -- tease it, get the media's saliva flowing, book some teevee appearances and then watch as Politico and Mark Halperin run the entire story on their own websites -- because, hey, it's not like Rolling Stone was doing anything with it, right? Eventually, the magazine decided to post the story on its own website around 11:00 a.m. yesterday.

Since then, Rolling Stone's editor Eric Bates spoke to Alex Pareene over at Salon. The good news is that Rolling Stone apparently now knows where it can find the Internet!

I just talked to Rolling Stone editor Eric Bates -- and I should apologize for calling the magazine confused by and terrified of the internet. (Though I still suspect that is true of publisher Jann Wenner!) According to Bates, Time Inc, and not just Politico, posted the story in its entirety. Rolling Stone had scheduled the story to run online tomorrow morning, when their national affairs stories usually go live, but they hadn't expected the White House to respond so quickly. Once they saw the McChrystal story become "not just a story, but the story of the day," the decision to put it up immediately took "ten seconds."

"We responded immediately," Bates told me. And the story went live as soon as he got to the office -- after doing "Morning Joe."

So, it took a while before they realized that the Hastings piece was going to be the "story of the day?" Wasn't getting booked on "Morning Joe" a pretty good hint that the story was important and that the feeding frenzy was underway? Baffling.

At any rate, I imagine that Rolling Stone understands that the White House will respond very quickly the next time the commander in charge of our controversial war puts the entire operation in jeopardy over some ill-advised sass talk.

RELATED:
How volcanoes and booze got the McChrystal story, and how Rolling Stone lost it [Salon's War Room]

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Comments

[Frank Jenkins]

06:07 PM on 06/24/2010

Surprised? That's what journalist are supposed to do. Report the news unlike the Chatter Boxes on 24/7 Some of them are like watching TMZ. I don't need that. I watch and read news for information, not an opinion.

[sweenmfm]

08:58 AM on 06/24/2010

Interesting that the totally devastating article in a recent Rolling Stone regarding The Obama administration complicity in the oil spill and the corrupt, incompetent MMS got no attention from the whie house.

[rjmiller]

08:49 AM on 06/24/2010

And I had thought he put the mission in jeopardy when he went with the COIN strategy, considering that it's completely absurd. There is just no way we are "winning hearts and minds" of a nation that now hates and distrusts us.

[Thaigold]

08:23 AM on 06/24/2010

I'd bet a six-pack of Colt .45 that the General - deep down in his heart-of-hearts knows the Afghan sand pit is going to end in tears. As many say, "better to quit a winner."
The General and his special group of warriors out tossing JD shooters. What do people expect?
Maybe Obama should go full mufti (it's doable) and get the front line scoop. It's got to be a sizable sizzle scoop...

[NHBill]

08:22 AM on 06/24/2010

Their web site says it all.

RS.com is a total mess.

Sad because there is usually several good things going on in RS with every issue.

[Imo Verit]

06:39 AM on 06/24/2010

Who would have thought a General kvetching would be the top story?

[vtopa]

01:46 AM on 06/24/2010

If it wasn't for independent reporting like Rolling Stone, we'd never have known about the Stanley McChrystal thing. Forget CNN, FOX, and the like. We need real reporting.

Please sign the petition to give Helen Thomas' front row seat not to Fox or Bloomberg, but to National Public Radio!!

http://www.petitiononline.com/nprfront/petition.html

[Yikes11]

09:54 PM on 06/23/2010

Mc Klanstol was on something!

[JimBozo]

09:18 PM on 06/23/2010

Now kick "Betray-us" out. He's exactly the same.

[radar2000]

08:52 PM on 06/23/2010

Perhaps the General and his aides thought the Rolling Stones was just a hippy rag, and that very few people will even read the article. Oops!

[UpstateNY]

08:29 PM on 06/23/2010

If you think Rolling Stone didn't know they had a hot story, you can also believe that McChrystal didn't know he was being insubordinate to his CinC.

[ran6110]

06:51 PM on 06/23/2010

I wouldn't be surprised if the White House requires advanced notice and final approval of all interviews from now on!

[Norak]

06:29 PM on 06/23/2010

It may be that Hastings began his coverage of General McChrystal full of admiration, or he may have had his own agenda and opinion of our presence in the Middle East. I guess we won't know till he writes his book.

My guess is that he lulled the general into a false sense that he (McC) was safe enough to say what he really feels and reveal his tremendous ego and sense of himself as all-powerful. Big mistake.

Hastings may have done his country a bigger service than he knows. It's a certainty that McChrstal's past will now be exposed, starting with the Tillman story and it's alleged cover-up.

[DarkHorses]

06:25 PM on 06/23/2010

To Jann Wenner: Considering I had to go 40 miles to Boston every two weeks to get Rolling Stone in the days when the big news was who would be in The Flying Burrito Brothers and Poco, to today, when a Rolling Stone story causes the President of the United States to switch Commanding Officers in the middle of a war, I have only one thing to say (with admiration): You've Come a LONG Way, Baby."
By the way, whatever became of the Bonzo Dog Band?

[Phoenix56317]

05:01 PM on 06/23/2010

I hope that rolling stone gets it's DAY on the hanging tree !

For all you people that are sticking up for Rolling Stone , WEAR IT PROUDLY !

For all of yous that wanted the General's blood, YOU GOT IT !

And now for the rest of the story, For all of you OBAMA SUPPORTERS, Well, YOU WANTED CHANGE AND NOW YOU GOT IT !

[Gasparilla]

05:33 PM on 06/23/2010

There is no one to blame but "the general". If you don't understand that military commanders cannot publicly criticize and mock the civilian leadership, you don't understand the constitution. RS did nothing but report on what was said. It was the "general" who opened his foolish mouth. You have to question his judgement for doing something that he should have known was going to cause this fiasco.

[UpstateNY]

08:34 PM on 06/23/2010

I have no idea with you're talking about Phoenix - but I am an Obama supporter. Although in this case, it doesn't matter.

The President is the CinC. Generals don't get to bad-mouth the civilian administration. Generals are not the equals of the CiC. And the proof is that the President just fired General McChrystal!

And now for the real rest of the story - that's not change, that's AMERICA!