Michael Hiltzik

{{short description|American columnist and reporter (born 1952)}}

{{infobox writer

| name =Michael A. Hiltzik

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| birth_date ={{Birth date and age|1952|11|9}}

| birth_place =New York City, U.S.

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| occupation =Journalist, foreign correspondent, columnist, editor, blogger, author

| nationality =American

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| education =Colgate University (BA)
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (MS)

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| spouse =Deborah Ibert

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| children =Andrew, David

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| awards = {{Plainlist|

{{Awards|year2=2004| year=1985 |award=Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism}}
{{Awards|year=1999 |award=Pulitzer Prize}}

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Michael A. Hiltzik (born November 9, 1952) is an American columnist, reporter and author who has written extensively for the Los Angeles Times. In 1999, he won a beat reporting Pulitzer Prize for co-writing a series of articles about corruption in the music industry with Chuck Philips."Michael Hiltzik." Marquis Who's Who, 2009. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC. Document Number: K2016804504. Fee. Accessed via Fairfax County Public Library.

He won two Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism.

Career

He was a journalist at the Buffalo Courier-Express in (Buffalo, New York) in 1974–1978 . He was a staff writer at the Providence Journal-Bulletin (Providence, Rhode Island) 1979–1981. He joined The Los Angeles Times as a financial writer from 1981 to 1983 and was its financial correspondent in New York City 1982–1988, Nairobi bureau chief 1988–1993, Moscow correspondent 1993–1994. He was a financial staff writer, editor, and columnist at the Times 1994–2006.

More recently, he began writing a column about business and economic issues in the US West Coast.

In 1985, he shared a Gerald Loeb Award Honorable Mention for Large Newspapers for "Takeovers".{{cite web|title=Historical Winners List|url=https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/news-and-events/signature-events/gerald-loeb-awards/winners/historical-winners|website=UCLA Anderson School of Management|access-date=January 31, 2019}}{{Cite web |url=https://ahbj.sabew.org/awards/03302013loeb-award-winners-1958-1971/ |title=Loeb Award winners 1958–1996 |website=Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing |date=April 2013 |access-date=February 6, 2019}}{{Better source needed|date=February 2019|reason=The UCLA historical page lists this as Medium Newspapers, but the more accurate SABEW page says it is Honorable Mention Large Newspapers. A contemporary source is needed to clarify.}} He won Silver Gavel award from the American Bar Association and the Overseas Press Club cited his reporting on East African issues. In 1996 he was a finalist for two Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting on health care issues in California and his reporting on a major entertainment merger between Disney and ABC.

Along with Times staff writer Chuck Philips, Hiltzik won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for their series on corruption and bribes in the music industry.{{cite web |url=http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x4983.xml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222053124/http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x4983.xml |archive-date=February 22, 2012 |publisher=UCLA Anderson School of Management |title=Gerald Loeb Awards – Michael Hiltzik |access-date=2009-10-25 |year=2006 }} The year-long series exposed corruption in the music business in three different areas: The Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences raised money for an ostensible charity that netted only pennies on the dollar for its charity; radio station "payola", for airplay of new recordings; and the proliferation of exploitive and poorly conceived medical detox programs for celebrities.{{cite news|last=Trounson|first=Rebecca|title=Mark Saylor dies at 58; former Times editor oversaw Pulitzer-winning series|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-mark-saylor-20130223-story.html|access-date=28 April 2013|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=February 22, 2012}} Mark Saylor, then entertainment editor of the business section of the paper, said it was gratifying because it recognized "aggressive reporting on the hometown industry . . . where The LA Times has long labored under a cloud, the misperception that ...[they]... were soft on the entertainment industry".{{cite news|last=Shaw|first=David|title=2 Times Staffers Share Pulitzer for Beat Reporting|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-apr-13-mn-26990-story.html|access-date=30 July 2012|newspaper=LA Times|date=April 13, 1999}} The series led to the removal of C. Michael Green, then Grammy chief.{{cite news|last=Philips|first=Chuck|title=Green out as President of Grammys|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-28-mn-40475-story.html|access-date=22 July 2012|newspaper=LA Times|date=April 28, 2002}}

In 2004, Hiltzik won a Gerald Loeb Award for Commentary.{{cite web |url=http://www.harpercollins.ca/authors/4497/Michael_A_Hiltzik/index.aspx |title=Michael A. Hiltzik from HarperCollins Publishers |access-date=2009-10-25 |publisher=HarperCollinsCanada}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-jun-30-fi-loeb30-story.html |title=L.A. Times Columnist Wins Loeb Award |date=June 30, 2004 |website=Los Angeles Times |access-date=February 1, 2019}}

Controversy

=Sockpuppet suspension=

In 2006, Hiltzik was suspended without pay from the LA Times for sockpuppeting on his blog "The Golden State". Hiltzik admitted to posting under false names on multiple sites, using the pseudonym "Mikekoshi" to criticize commentators Hugh Hewitt and Patrick Frey.{{cite web |work=Slate Magazine |title=I Spy Your IP |first=Michael |last=Weiss |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2140453/ |date=April 21, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060423165705/http://www.slate.com/id/2140453/|archive-date=April 23, 2006|access-date=August 21, 2012}}{{cite news |title=Los Angeles Times Yanks Columnist's Blog – Hiltzik Accused of Using Pseudonyms |newspaper=The Washington Post |first=Howard |last=Kurtz |author-link=Howard Kurtz |date=April 21, 2006 |access-date=2009-10-25 | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/20/AR2006042002375.html}} In December 2009, the LA Times announced that Hiltzik would be returning to the paper as a business columnist.{{cite news|last=Hofmeister|first=Sallie|title=Michael Hiltzik to return to writing Business column|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/readers/2008/12/business-editor.html?cid=143306364|access-date=27 July 2012|newspaper=The LA Times|date=December 19, 2008}}

=Mocking unvaccinated COVID deaths=

Hiltzik was criticized for a January 10, 2022 column, where he encouraged public humiliation of unvaccinated people who died from COVID-19. He said, "mockery is not necessarily the wrong reaction to those who publicly mocked anti-COVID measures and encourage others to follow suit, before they perished of the disease the dangers of which they belittled".{{cite news |last=Stafford |first=Zach |url=https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/unvaccinated-people-dying-covid-doesn-t-warrant-your-gloating-n1287546 |title=Unvaccinated people dying of Covid doesn't warrant your gloating |work=MSNBC |date=2022-01-17 |accessdate=2022-12-16 }}{{cite news |last=Hiltzik |first=Michael |url=https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-01-10/why-shouldnt-we-dance-on-the-graves-of-anti-vaxxers |title=Column: Mocking anti-vaxxers' COVID deaths is ghoulish, yes — but may be necessary |work=Los Angeles Times |date=2022-01-10 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220110201404/https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-01-10/why-shouldnt-we-dance-on-the-graves-of-anti-vaxxers |archivedate=2022-01-10 |accessdate=2022-12-16 }}

Books

{{cite book |title=A death in Kenya : the murder of Julie Ward |location=New York, N.Y. |publisher=Delacorte Press |year=1991 |isbn=0-385-30191-X|lccn=90027198}}
{{cite book |title=Dealers of lightning : Xerox PARC and the dawn of the computer age |edition=1st |location=New York |publisher=HarperBusiness |year=1999 |isbn=0-88730-891-0 |lccn=98047043 |url=https://archive.org/details/dealersoflightni00hilt }}
{{cite book|title=The plot against Social security : how the Bush administration is endangering our financial future |url=https://archive.org/details/plotagainstsocia00hilt |url-access=registration |edition=1st |location=New York, N.Y.|publisher=HarperCollinsPublishers |year=2005 |isbn=0-06-083465-X|lccn=2005046132}}
{{cite book |title=Colossus : Hoover Dam and the making of the American century |location=New York |publisher=Free Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4165-3216-3 |lccn=2009033833 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/colossushooverda0000hilt }}
{{cite book |title=The New Deal: A Modern History |location=New York |publisher=Free Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4391-5448-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/newdealmodernhis00hilt }}
{{cite book|title=Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex|publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2015 |isbn=978-1451675757}}
{{cite book|title=Iron Empires: Robber Barons, Railroads, and the Making of Modern America|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|year=2020|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j1SdDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1|isbn=9780544770348}}

=Radio interviews=

Hiltzik has been interviewed about internet privacy matters on talk radio shows such as the Norman Goldman Show.The Norman Goldman Show http://normangoldman.com

References

External links

{{C-SPAN|1014983}}
[https://twitter.com/hiltzikm Michael Hitzik] on Twitter
[https://soundcloud.com/inquiringminds/94-michael-hiltzik-the-invention-that-launched-the-military-industrial-complex Inquiring Minds interview with Michael Hiltzik about Big Science]

Category:American newspaper reporters and correspondents

Category:1952 births

Category:Living people

Category:Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni

Category:Colgate University alumni

Category:Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting winners

Category:The Providence Journal people

Category:Los Angeles Times people

Category:American male bloggers

Category:American bloggers

Category:American business writers

Category:American technology writers