New York, February 27, 2012– Social news leader BuzzFeed has hired Michael Hastings to cover President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. Hastings, a bestselling author and writer whose coverage of the war in Afghanistan has shaken the political and military establishment, will report from Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York, and from the campaign trail.
"Social publishing is the future of journalism, or at least huge part of its future. By joining BuzzFeed, I'll be at the front and center of that world," Hastings said. "It will give me the chance to be part of a media organization that's breaking new journalistic ground, finding innovative and fresh ways to report the story.
"Then there’s the story itself: President Barack Obama’s fight to remain our president. Assuming we don’t bomb Iran in the next couple of days, the campaign for president is going to be the biggest story of the year," Hastings said. "I can’t wait to buy my tickets to O’Hare."
BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith said, "Michael Hastings is one of the great original reporters of his generation, and his Rolling Stone article ‘The Runaway General’ reflected his total fearlessness. We're thrilled to add him to a web native political team that's intensely focused on breaking news and on original, revelatory reporting.”
Hastings will begin reporting for BuzzFeed on April 2, 2012.
More on Hastings:
Michael Hastings is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan. In 2011, he received the George Polk Award in journalism for his Rolling Stone story “The Runaway General.” His work has appeared in Newsweek, GQ, Men’s Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Slate, Salon, Foreign Policy, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, and a number of other publications. In 2010, Hastings was named one of Huffington Post’s Game Changers of the year. His GQ story “Obama’s War” was selected for Best American Political Writing 2009. In 2008, he covered the presidential elections for Newsweek, a tale he recounted in the story “Hack: Confessions of a Presidential Campaign Reporter,” published in GQ and chosen by Slate as one of the best stories in modern campaign literature. From 2005-2007, Hastings was the Baghdad correspondent for Newsweek magazine. He’s covered the wars in Afghanistan, the conflict in Israel, and most recently, the behind the scenes story of President Obama’s decision to intervene in Libya. A contributing editor to Rolling Stone, he’s also the author of I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story.
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About BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed publishes the hottest, most social content on the web to an audience of more than 25 million monthly visitors. The company is led by Jonah Peretti, an MIT Media Lab graduate and Huffington Post co-Founder.