It warms my heart to know that after forcing a passenger off an overbooked flight United Airlines still cares enough to engage in opposition research and public smears against said passenger.
Maybe the CEO of United could strangle a few adorable kittens and puppies on live television just to reinforce the corporate image they seem to be working so hard to engender?
United didn’t have to do any research. In this day of age someone will do it and publish it. If you become a victim or a perp your background is going to surface.
It may not have been overbooked, if the part about United giving their employees preference over paying customers is true. That's even worse than overbooking, IMO.
It'd be interesting to know if any of this is covered in the airlines' "customer agreement" boilerplate. Even if it is, it's still damaging and United knows it. This smear attempt may end up hurting United as much as the initial offense.