A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist has accused President Trump of conspiring with United Airlines’ CEO Oscar Munoz to distract people from the latest controversies in the White House.
Michael Hiltzik, a Los Angeles Times columnist who won the Pulitzer for beat reporting award in 1999, has weighted in on the latest controversy surrounding the United Airlines’ forceful removal of a passenger, prompting an outcry from the people and tanking the stock of the company.
The LA Times columnist tweeted: “Just wondering: did Trump ask United CEO Oscar Munoz to distract the world from the White House follies today?”
Just wondering: did Trump ask United CEO Oscar Munoz to distract the world from the White House follies today?
— Michael Hiltzik (@hiltzikm) April 11, 2017
Other people on Twitter quickly started mocking the journalist for floating unfounded conspiracy theories, one saying: “You suggest that CEO of a publicly-traded company would purposefully inflame a PR disaster to ‘help’ a political figure. That’s… unlikely.”
“You sound… what’s the phrase? Oh yeah. Paranoid as Hell,” tweeted another user. One user pointed out that spreading such conspiracy theories actually devalues the Pulitzer prize: ” Wow the Pulitzer has actually lost some credibility with that tweet. Nice work”.
Omri Ceren, a popular political blogger, noted that Hiltzik’s unfounded theories make conservatives skeptical about mainstream media’s alleged objectivity. “‘Why are so many conservatives skeptical about political bias of career journalists,’ some people ask,” he jokingly tweeted.
Hiltzik’s insane accusation misses the mark as United Airlines CEO Munoz is on the record as no fan of President Trump.
In an interview with Business Insider, he criticized Trump’s decisions. He criticized President’s travel ban from certain countries in the Middle East, saying “It was so sudden that you have people in the air, you have people out of the country, you have people connected back here that are just stranded.”
“So how do you tell somebody who lives in America … that they can’t come back, he added.
Munoz also attacked Trump’s border wall plans, calling it “damning and damaging” to the country. “Clearly, on a visceral human front, I oppose any wall, anywhere, between any people — period,” he said.
“[When] we start building walls or even creating the concept of walls, it starts making it OK for you to build personal walls at work or with your neighbors,” Munoz said. “I think that’s damning and damaging to the country we all know is great because of that diversity and not despite of it.”
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