Education
Columbia University; Colgate University.
Columbia University; Colgate University.
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 1981–1983, 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 United States West Coast. 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 American Broadcasting Company. Mark Saylor, then entertainment editor of the business section of the paper, said it was especially rewarding because it recognized "aggressive reporting on the hometown industry. where The Los Angeles Times has long labored under a cloud, the misperception that... were soft on the entertainment industry".
The series led to the removal of C. Michael Green, then Grammy chief In 2006, Hiltzik was suspended without pay from the Los Angeles 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 Hugh Hewitt and Los Angeles prosecutor Patrick Frey. In December 2009, the Los Angeles Times announced that Hiltzik would be returning to the paper as a business columnist.