That said, yes, it’s terrible how low paid these pilots are. One day I will tell you all the horror stories from THREE different people who worked for Michael Moore — not a very enlightened employer one might say.

Let me also add that this piece is but thinly veiled self-promotion for Moore. One of the MAJOR reasons that not enough reviewers pay enough attention to all that “mind-blowing” data in Moore’s latest film –including low-paid pilots– is that Moore gums up the whole works by constantly inserting himself in the flick in the same old same shtick and it frankly blocks out much of the good stuff in his movie.

This week, the new ‘Mike & Friends Blog’ section will be added to MichaelMoore.com. In additional to my blog, I have asked a few people, like Rep. Marcy Kaptur (the Democrat from Toledo who has deservedly become the star of my movie!) and Leah Fried (who helped organize the sit-down strike at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago), to blog here on my site. Here’s a sneak peek of my first blog post. Enjoy! — MM

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Pilots on Food Stamps
By Michael Moore

We’re on the descent from 20,000 feet in the air when the flight attendant leans over the elderly woman next to me and taps me on the shoulder.

“I’m listening to Lady Gaga,” I say as I remove just one of the ear buds. I know not this Lady Gaga, but her performance last week on SNL was fascinating.

“The pilots would like to see you in the cockpit when we land,” she says with a southern drawl.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No. They have something to show you.” (The last time an employee of an airline wanted to show me something it was her written reprimand for eating an in-flight meal without paying for it. “Yes,” she said, “we have to pay for our own meals on board now.”)

The plane landed and I stepped into the cockpit. “Read this,” the first officer said. He handed me a letter from the airline to him. It was headlined “LETTER OF CONCERN.” It seems this poor fellow had taken three sick days in the past year. The letter was a warning not to take another one — or else.

“Great,” I said. “Just what I want — you coming to work sick, flying me up in the air and asking to borrow the barf bag from my seatback pocket.”

He then showed me his pay stub. He took home 5 this week. My life was completely and totally in his hands for the past hour and he’s paid less than the kid who delivers my pizza.

I told the guys that I have a whole section in my new movie about how pilots are treated (using pilots as only one example of how people’s wages have been slashed and the middle class decimated). In the movie I interview a pilot for a major airline who made ,000 last year. For four months he was eligible — and received — food stamps. Another pilot in the film has a second job as a dog walker.

“I have a second job!,” the two pilots said in unison. One is a substitute teacher. The other works in a coffee shop. You know, maybe it’s just me, but the two occupations whose workers shouldn’t be humpin’ a second job are brain surgeons and airline pilots. Call me crazy.

I told them about how Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger (the pilot who safely landed the jet in the Hudson River) had testified in Congress that no pilot he knows wants any of their children to become a pilot. Pilots, he said, are completely demoralized. He spoke of how his pay has been cut 40% and his own pension eliminated. Most of the TV news didn’t cover his remarks and the congressmen quickly forgot them. They just wanted him to play the role of “HERO,” but he was on a more important mission. He’s in my movie.

“I hadn’t heard anywhere that this stuff about the airlines is in this new movie,” the pilot said.

“No, you wouldn’t,” I replied. “The press likes to talk about me, not the movie.”

And it’s true. I’ve been surprised (and slightly annoyed) that, with all that’s been written and talked about “Capitalism: A Love Story,” very little attention has been paid the mind-blowing stuff in the film: pilots on food stamps, companies secretly taking out life insurance policies on employees and hoping they die young so the company can collect, judges getting kickbacks from the private prison industry for sending innocent people (kids) to be locked up. The profit motive — it’s a killer.

Especially when your pilot started his day at 6am working at the local Starbucks.

Sprocket said:

Steve Mikulan, staff writer for LA Weekly is a damn good writer. He’s unbelievably witty. You will read some of the most interesting prose from Steven. I first met him at the Robert Blake trial. If I’m not mistaken, that was the first trial he covered for LA Weekly. His coverage was so good, his editors had him cover Spector, where his writing just got better. Even Spector’s defense team read Steven, with Bradley Brunon coming over and commenting directly to him about his articles.

Because of that great coverage, Steve now covers the local State and Federal courts for LA Weekly.
Posted 10/14/2008 at 07:27:42 PM

One of mine too! Small town Pa. dresses up as zombie extras in a bad B&W horror film. I watch it at least once a year.

Thanks, all.

It wasn’t because he was a warm, caring person in a business filled with desperate hacks.

It wasn’t because he was the smartest person in the room.

I was a fan because he came from the theater and GOT IT. He knew that a criminal trial where there was something at stake that drew skilled participants was, minus the boring parts of procedure, great drama. It’s a stage populated by mostly male lawyers who are convinced they are brilliant writers and actors, a cross between early David Mamet and later George Clooney.

Most court reporting is about getting the facts right and the quotes transcribe accurately. A high school kid can do that.

Steve, because of his training, understands all the subtext, which is what great courtroom drama is about.

In a perfect world, a national publication (print, web, broadcast) would be tripping over its own feet to get Steve into the fold.

I first met Steve Mikulan in December 2004 when he covered the Robert Blake murder trial. He was the first member of the accredited press to befriend me and acknowledge my trial coverage blogging.

I met up with Steve again at the first Phil Spector trial, where he was kind enough to save me a seat in the second row, where I got to sit with other members of the print media. We became a tight group that sat together everyday and exchanged thoughts about the trial.

Not enough words can be said about the wonderfully creative and witty stories he filed covering that trial. Even the defense team would come over and compliment him on his articles. Dominick Dunne was totally smitten with his pieces and couldn’t wait to read the next one.

With the talent that Steve has I’m hopeful he will land on his feet where he’s appreciated and can shine for more readers to experience.

Betsy A. Ross
Trials & Tribulations Blog

This is indeed a blow—and a bad omen.

What Name Withheld says is very intriguing. One thing I would like to correct, however: if the Weekly gives any roll at all to Oscar Garza, they— and we—will be fortunate.

Oscar is extremely bright, talented and a great editor (whom I’ve worked with at two publications), with a background that is quite eclectic. And unlike many at the Times who are still so 1st-&-Spring-Street-centric they cannot bring themselves to admit that the Weekly mattered even in its best days, Oscar has always had an eye toward the future of journalism, not the past.

But Oscar Garza aside, this news about Steve M. is deeply saddening.

What positions to Miles. Katz and Scattergood now hold at the Weekly? Staff or contractors?

And how will this “professional culture” mesh with Stewart’s fever swamp news operation?

This week, the new ‘Mike & Friends Blog’ section will be added to MichaelMoore.com. In additional to my blog, I have asked a few people, like Rep. Marcy Kaptur (the Democrat from Toledo who has deservedly become the star of my movie!) and Leah Fried (who helped organize the sit-down strike at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago), to blog here on my site. Here’s a sneak peek of my first blog post. Enjoy! — MM

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Pilots on Food Stamps
By Michael Moore

We’re on the descent from 20,000 feet in the air when the flight attendant leans over the elderly woman next to me and taps me on the shoulder.

“I’m listening to Lady Gaga,” I say as I remove just one of the ear buds. I know not this Lady Gaga, but her performance last week on SNL was fascinating.

“The pilots would like to see you in the cockpit when we land,” she says with a southern drawl.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No. They have something to show you.” (The last time an employee of an airline wanted to show me something it was her written reprimand for eating an in-flight meal without paying for it. “Yes,” she said, “we have to pay for our own meals on board now.”)

The plane landed and I stepped into the cockpit. “Read this,” the first officer said. He handed me a letter from the airline to him. It was headlined “LETTER OF CONCERN.” It seems this poor fellow had taken three sick days in the past year. The letter was a warning not to take another one — or else.

“Great,” I said. “Just what I want — you coming to work sick, flying me up in the air and asking to borrow the barf bag from my seatback pocket.”

He then showed me his pay stub. He took home $405 this week. My life was completely and totally in his hands for the past hour and he’s paid less than the kid who delivers my pizza.

I told the guys that I have a whole section in my new movie about how pilots are treated (using pilots as only one example of how people’s wages have been slashed and the middle class decimated). In the movie I interview a pilot for a major airline who made $17,000 last year. For four months he was eligible — and received — food stamps. Another pilot in the film has a second job as a dog walker.

“I have a second job!,” the two pilots said in unison. One is a substitute teacher. The other works in a coffee shop. You know, maybe it’s just me, but the two occupations whose workers shouldn’t be humpin’ a second job are brain surgeons and airline pilots. Call me crazy.

I told them about how Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger (the pilot who safely landed the jet in the Hudson River) had testified in Congress that no pilot he knows wants any of their children to become a pilot. Pilots, he said, are completely demoralized. He spoke of how his pay has been cut 40% and his own pension eliminated. Most of the TV news didn’t cover his remarks and the congressmen quickly forgot them. They just wanted him to play the role of “HERO,” but he was on a more important mission. He’s in my movie.

“I hadn’t heard anywhere that this stuff about the airlines is in this new movie,” the pilot said.

“No, you wouldn’t,” I replied. “The press likes to talk about me, not the movie.”

And it’s true. I’ve been surprised (and slightly annoyed) that, with all that’s been written and talked about “Capitalism: A Love Story,” very little attention has been paid the mind-blowing stuff in the film: pilots on food stamps, companies secretly taking out life insurance policies on employees and hoping they die young so the company can collect, judges getting kickbacks from the private prison industry for sending innocent people (kids) to be locked up. The profit motive — it’s a killer.

Especially when your pilot started his day at 6am working at the local Starbucks.