They are so caught up in their own self-importance that they miss the fact that they are becoming obnoxious jerks.

Does Michael Pollack (ph) realize what an ass he has made of himself and his supposedly respectable employer? One thinks not only of Judy Miller, as you mentioned, but also of right-wing bloggers who “out” lefty bloggers as a way of destroying their real lives. His disproportionate response is at about the same level IMHO. And… does he take no responsibility at all for the NYT’s gullibility?

I wonder if Andrea (ph) has considered suing, no, not the NYT, but Pollack himself. The fact that he explicitly threatened her career and went out of his way to involve several parties not intrinsically involved in the incident (probably using his NYT resources to obtain the information) sounds like it may be grounds for such a suit. But that would surely be expensive.

Or I suppose Andrea’s friends could simply find Pollack’s home phone number and publish it. That would certainly be a response in kind: disproportionate and disruptive of his daily life. But that would be wrong. I am NOT recommending that her friends saturate his home phone 24 hours a day with “wrong numbers” …