Rolling Stone has laid off Eric Bates, its executive editor and a member of its staff since 2003. Before his time at RS, Bates held top editorial sports at Mother Jones and Southern Exposure. 

“I’m going to be rooting for them [RS] and looking forward to whatever is next for me,” Bates told the New York Times.

In related news, Mark Neschis, corporate communications director for RS’ parent, Wenner Media, has been let go as well. Neschis had been with the company since 2005.

According to Poynter, Matt Taibbi‘s  just-posted Rolling Stone piece on Michele Bachmann “borrowed liberally” from a 2006 City Pages cover story written by G.R. Anderson. City Pages writes that Abe Sauer at the Awl called Rolling Stone out in a “point-by-point comparison and got Rolling Stone executive editor Eric Bates to admit he had deleted several ‘according to City Pages’ references. Bates promised to add link backs into the electronic version of the story, which he did.”

But Anderson, the original author of the story, wants an apology. “I would never want to get anybody fired,” Anderson told City Pages. “But I do want credit where credit is due.” Anderson is currently a journalism professor at the University of Minnesota J-School, and he did say that while he “would not consider what the Rolling Stone contained in it to be plagiarism. That is for other people to decide… [but] I do know that if a student handed in a story with that particular lack of sourcing, not only would I give it an ‘F,’ I would probably put that student on academic fraud.”

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Michael Hastings‘ blockbuster story for Rolling Stone, “The Runaway General,” which led to the abrupt, forced resignation of General Stanley McChrystal, was nominated for a National Magazine Award earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon was launching an investigation of its own into the veracity of the claims made in the story. The New York Times reports that the inspector general’s report, released Monday, found no wrongdoing by the general or his aides, and moreover, challenged the accuracy of the Rolling Stone profile.

In turn, Rolling Stone and its executive editor Eric Bates maintained on Monday that the article was “accurate in every detail,” and actually questioned the Pentagon’s methods in a statement on the magazine’s website:

Much of the report, in fact, confirms our reporting, noting only that the Pentagon was unable to find witnesses “who acknowledged making or hearing the comments as reported.” This is not surprising, given that the civilian and military advisers questioned by the Pentagon knew that their careers were on the line if they admitted to making such comments.

After a story like “The Runaway General,” we’d be more surprised if the controversy wasn’t continuing on.