Did you read this story? He is IN trouble for doing this. Whether you think it is OK is irrelevant. It obviously was not and he should have known that.
I don't think we are getting the whole story. There is something else here that is going unmentioned. Was she the 17-year-old version of 'late teen'? Was she an employee of the paper and this became Sexual Harassment? Did he do things on company property or time?
Something else here is going on that they are not mentioning. A May/December romance would not be sufficient to cause dismissal; Certainly not in a Chicago newspaper.