Boris Kachka has an interesting retrospective on l’affaire Lehrer, “Proust Wasn’t a Neuroscientist. Neither was Jonah Lehrer.” This bit, as Lehrer pleaded with a journalist not to be outed, is pretty revealing (boldface mine):

The next morning, a desperate Lehrer finally managed to reach Moynihan. Didn’t he realize, Lehrer pleaded, that if Moynihan went forward, he would never write again—would end up nothing more than a schoolteacher? The story was published soon after. That afternoon, Lehrer announced through his publisher that he’d resigned from The New Yorker and would do everything he could to help correct the record. “The lies,” he said, “are over now.”

Some of us believe there are worse things than being a schoolteacher. Lehrer might even have first-hand experience with one of them.