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Jesus Malverde

(10,274 posts)
Fri Nov 8, 2013, 03:18 AM Nov 2013

Brother dismisses conspiracy theories of ‘Michael Hastings truthers’



The brother of journalist Michael Hastings says he and his family were satisfied with the police investigation into his brother’s fatal car crash and dismissed claims by “truthers” who believe he was killed by the government.

“There were a lot of journalists-in-quotes who didn’t seem to have read (the police report) very carefully or were, irresponsibly I think, taking things out of context,” said Jonathan Hastings. “I guess that’s understandable — I mean, of course the press is going to sensationalize things and play up the juicy stuff. But just because it was understandable didn’t mean I liked it.”

Jonathan Hastings discussed his late younger brother, an author and journalist who’d written for Newsweek, Rolling Stone and Buzzfeed, and his June 18 death at age 33 during an interview published Monday on the Uncouth Reflections blog.

“I think it’s kind of strange that there are now ‘Michael Hastings Truthers’ out there, but that just seems to be a side-effect of how the internet works these days,” Hastings said. “Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that there are so many people who are really invested in the idea that he was murdered by the government, but I still think it’s a weird thing for people who didn’t know him to get hung up on. A lot of them seem not to have been familiar with his work before he died, so it isn’t simply a result of grieving fans, or something.

Hastings said he flew to Los Angeles shortly before his younger brother’s death after speaking to him by phone and worrying that he might be experiencing a drug-induced manic episode, something that had happened about 15 years earlier.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/06/brother-dismisses-conspiracy-theories-of-michael-hastings-truthers/

http://uncouthreflections.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/reckless-and-inspired-an-interview-with-jonathan-hastings-about-his-brother-the-journalist-michael-hastings/
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