Michael A. Hiltzik (born November 9, 1952) is an Americancolumnist,reporter and author who has written extensively for theLos Angeles Times. In 1999, he won abeat reportingPulitzer Prize for co-writing a series of articles aboutcorruption in themusic industry withChuck Philips.^[1] He won twoGerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism.^[2]

Hiltzik was a journalist at theBuffalo Courier-Express in (Buffalo, New York) in 1974–1978 . He was a staff writer at theProvidence Journal-Bulletin (Providence, Rhode Island) 1979–1981. He joinedThe 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 theTimes 1994–2006.^[1]More recently, he began writing a column about business and economic issues in theUS West Coast.

In 1985, Hiltzik shared aGerald Loeb Award Honorable Mention for Large Newspapers for "Takeovers".^{[2][3][better source needed]} He won Silver Gavel award from theAmerican Bar Association and theOverseas Press Club cited his reporting onEast African issues. In 1996 he was a finalist for two Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting onhealth care issues inCalifornia and his reporting on a major entertainment merger betweenDisney andABC.^[4]

Along withTimes staff writer Chuck Philips, Hiltzik won the 1999Pulitzer 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: TheAcademy 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 aGerald Loeb Award for Commentary.^[8][9]

In 2006, Hiltzik was suspended without pay from theLA Times forsockpuppeting on his blog "The Golden State". Hiltzik admitted to posting under false names on multiple sites, using the pseudonym "Mikekoshi" to criticize commentatorsHugh Hewitt and Patrick Frey.^[10][11] In December 2009, theLA Times announced that Hiltzik would be returning to the paper as a business columnist.^[12]

Hiltzik was criticized for a January 10, 2022 column where he encouraged public humiliation of unvaccinated people who died fromCOVID-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]

• 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.

Hiltzik has been interviewed aboutinternet privacy matters ontalk radio shows such as theNorman Goldman Show.^[15]

• Pogue, David (April 4, 1999)."Geek Lore".The New York Times. Retrieved2009-10-25. book review ofDealers of Lightning

• Appearances onC-SPAN
• Michael Hitzik onTwitter
• Inquiring Minds interview with Michael Hiltzik about Big Science

• 20th-century American journalists
• 21st-century American journalists
• 20th-century American non-fiction writers
• 21st-century American non-fiction writers
• American newspaper reporters and correspondents
• American business and financial journalists
• American foreign correspondents
• American columnists
• American technology writers
• Los Angeles Times people
• American male bloggers
• American bloggers
• Gerald Loeb Award winners for Large Newspapers
• Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting winners
• Gerald Loeb Award winners for Columns, Commentary, and Editorials
• Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni
• Colgate University alumni
• American male non-fiction writers
• 1952 births
• Living people

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• All articles lacking reliable references
• Articles lacking reliable references from February 2019
• People appearing on C-SPAN