How stressful do you think the last couple of months have been for that reporter?
> This decision is a relief. But it does not repair the harm done to me and my family. // My deepest desire is that somehow this situation might be redeemed. And I believe it can be. // My actions were entirely legal and consistent with established journalistic principles.
They thought they had just found a mistake in the government's IT system; instead, now that have a story about a mistake in the IT system and an idiot governor who doesn't understand infosec and is too bad a leader to delegate to people who do.
"Known to cause lots of work for legal department" could, for some bosses, be considered a negative signal in hiring. Moreover, "pisses of people with power": same.
To a good editor, yes. But I'm not sure the majority of editors are good ones, so while your point isn't exactly false, the GP's is also true (with all the other ones).
In reverse, you probably know a lot names of startup or IT personalities, that nobody outside our field would ever need to know