Can Your Brand McChrystal

Fast, overwhelming, decisive: It's a case study in how tightly connected 21st-century media can whip a story into a full-on tsunami, with startling consequences for individual careers and national policy. It began as a scattering of acid remarks within earshot of a Rolling Stone reporter. But - thanks in large part to Twitter, the Web, and cable news - barely two days after those remarks were disclosed, a media firestorm ended General Stanley McChrystal career as commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. (Many thought his career should have ended with his cover-up of the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman.)