Nah the guy violated the one big rule, as Al Pacino put it in "The Recruit", "Rule Number 1 - Do Not Get Caught".
Trust me - getting caught is celebrated at the Chronicle. They give you promotions for it. That's just how bad of a newspaper they are. They could have a Jayson Blair scandal pop up and they'd promote him to bureau chief. The entire paper wallows in mediocrity and sloppiness.