Pat,

The idea of looking at Rawat as an equal is somewhat bizarre as I'd feel that I was rather demeaning myself with such a comparison.  You don't?

I agree that Suzie was given too rough a ride.  Her christian shtick deserved to be shut down, either by her or anyone she kept serving it to, but that was all. 

But I completely disagree with you about John MacGregor.  He deserves compassion to some extent, sure, but he has indeed betrayed his friends.  To overlook that would leave no room for acknowledging all the braver, more principled, ways he might have done things.  Put it this way -- any fellow journalists familiar with his original expose learning of his later grovelling would be aghast.  Piteous, sure but nonetheless disgusted.