Rolling Stone Reporter Michael Hastings: Gen. Stanley McChrystal's Camp Tried to Censor Profile

(June 24) -- The author of the Rolling Stone magazine profile that led to the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal said he was pressured not to print some of the damning statements made by the U.S. commander in Afghanistan and his top aides about the Obama administration.

Now embedded with U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Kabul-based freelance writer Michael Hastings told the "Today" show that he had a number of discussions with members of McChrystal's team about the contents of his now famous story, "The Runaway General."

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"They tried to pressure me not to write about some things that were on the record, and I told them I can't really play that game," Hastings said. "One of the things that happens in journalism is that -- especially with powerful figures -- they give journalists access in exchange for favorable coverage and future access. That dynamic didn't apply to me and the story I was writing, or just my general style of journalism."

Hastings said he did not expect his story -- in which McChrystal mocks Vice President Joe Biden and his aides slam President Barack Obama -- would cause the stir it has, leading the general to be relieved of his command Wednesday by the president and replaced by Gen. David Petraeus.

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"I did not think General McChrystal would be fired," Hastings told NBC's Matt Lauer. "In fact, I thought his position was basically untouchable. I thought it would give them a headache for maybe 72 hours with some of the material that I was going to publish, but I thought based on past experience -- and that they've survived these media crises before -- that would fall into the same book as that."

Given the consequences of his up-close and personal portrait of McChrystal, Hastings said he hoped his story doesn't prevent other journalists from gaining open access to the military in the future.

"The access we actually got was almost a throwback to the old days of fly-on-the-wall reporting, where nowadays access is almost so controlled," he said. "It was very rare to get this kind of access anyway. So I don't see any significant changes. I apologize to my colleagues if they're not getting any interview requests from General Petraeus in the next couple of days."