Michael A. Hiltzik
Born (1952-11-09) November 9, 1952
New York City, U.S.
OccupationJournalist, foreign correspondent, columnist, editor, blogger, author
NationalityAmerican
EducationColgate University (BA)
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (MS)
Notable awards
SpouseDeborah Ibert
ChildrenAndrew, David

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.[1] He won two Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism.[2]

Career

He was a journalist at the Buffalo Courier-Express in (Buffalo, New York) in 1974–1978 and bureau chief in 1976–1978. 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.[1] 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".[2][3] 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.[4]

Along with Times staff writer Chuck Philips, Hiltzik won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for their series on corruption and bribes in the music industry.[4] 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.[5] 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".[6] The series led to the removal of C. Michael Green, then Grammy chief.[7]

In 2004, Hiltzik won a Gerald Loeb Award for Commentary.[8][9]

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.[10][11] In December 2009, the LA Times announced that Hiltzik would be returning to the paper as a business columnist.[12]

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".[13][14]

Books

  • A death in Kenya : the murder of Julie Ward. New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press. 1991. ISBN 0-385-30191-X. LCCN 90027198.
  • Dealers of lightning : Xerox PARC and the dawn of the computer age (1st ed.). New York: HarperBusiness. 1999. ISBN 0-88730-891-0. LCCN 98047043.
  • The plot against Social security : how the Bush administration is endangering our financial future (1st ed.). New York, N.Y.: HarperCollinsPublishers. 2005. ISBN 0-06-083465-X. LCCN 2005046132.
  • Colossus : Hoover Dam and the making of the American century. New York: Free Press. 2010. ISBN 978-1-4165-3216-3. LCCN 2009033833.
  • The New Deal: A Modern History. New York: Free Press. 2011. ISBN 978-1-4391-5448-9.
  • Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex. Simon & Schuster. 2015. ISBN 978-1451675757.
  • Iron Empires: Robber Barons, Railroads, and the Making of Modern America. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2020. ISBN 9780544770348.

Radio interviews

Hiltzik has been interviewed about internet privacy matters on talk radio shows such as the Norman Goldman Show.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 "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.
  2. 1 2 "Historical Winners List". UCLA Anderson School of Management. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
  3. ↑ "Loeb Award winners 1958–1996". Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. April 2013. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  4. 1 2 "Gerald Loeb Awards – Michael Hiltzik". UCLA Anderson School of Management. 2006. Archived from the original on February 22, 2012. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
  5. ↑ Trounson, Rebecca (February 22, 2012). "Mark Saylor dies at 58; former Times editor oversaw Pulitzer-winning series". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  6. ↑ Shaw, David (April 13, 1999). "2 Times Staffers Share Pulitzer for Beat Reporting". LA Times. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  7. ↑ Philips, Chuck (April 28, 2002). "Green out as President of Grammys". LA Times. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  8. ↑ "Michael A. Hiltzik from HarperCollins Publishers". HarperCollinsCanada. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
  9. ↑ "L.A. Times Columnist Wins Loeb Award". Los Angeles Times. June 30, 2004. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  10. ↑ Weiss, Michael (April 21, 2006). "I Spy Your IP". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on April 23, 2006. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
  11. ↑ Kurtz, Howard (April 21, 2006). "Los Angeles Times Yanks Columnist's Blog – Hiltzik Accused of Using Pseudonyms". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
  12. ↑ Hofmeister, Sallie (December 19, 2008). "Michael Hiltzik to return to writing Business column". The LA Times. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  13. ↑ Stafford, Zach (2022-01-17). "Unvaccinated people dying of Covid doesn't warrant your gloating". MSNBC. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
  14. ↑ Hiltzik, Michael (2022-01-10). "Column: Mocking anti-vaxxers' COVID deaths is ghoulish, yes — but may be necessary". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2022-01-10. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
  15. ↑ The Norman Goldman Show http://normangoldman.com

Further reading

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