Wow, you really think he might lose his job over this? I hadn't even really allowed myself to dream such a thing. That would be peaches, though.

Let's be clear: Dvorak isn't just some guy, he's a professional troll. We're not picking him out of obscurity and pantsing him in front of his classmates. He chooses to be a writer, to push people's buttons, to publish inflammatory material without doing any kind of research. If he loses his job, it'll only be because this is somehow the first time he's actually crossed the line into libel, and if he's a mockery for the rest of his life, he's in the same state he was a week ago, except now maybe some political junkies are in on it, too.

Wasn't he one of the 'journalists' who bought into the SCO vs Linux thing?

One way to not risk your job and reputation is to be very careful prior to publishing lies about people in widely circulated publications.

I think the followup to this story -- the impact on blogging, relationship of a columnist as a reporter, the degree of fact-checking needed before publishing, what, if anything happens to Dvorak -- is going to be much more interesting than the story itself.

I think that would be great if it happened, but I don't think it will.