Appalling behaviour by United, they deserve all the negative publicity they will surely get - providing of course that the news report is correct.
Some years ago I was on an overbooked Qantas flight from Sydney to Auckland. They offered apologies, lounge access, free upgrade to business on the next flight (about 3 hours later on an Air NZ flight) and a voucher ($100 if I remember correctly). It was well done and I just managed to be one of the lucky ones happy to get an upgrade and $100, just for waiting 3 hours. I felt good about Qantas for a long time after that.