If find it extremely harsh that a decade and a half later he is still blocked from the bar. That said, he sounds rather like a psychopath.
As despicable as I find most lawyers, they still have to have integrity and follow the rules of the court, client-attorney privilege, etc. I'm sure there is a ton of minutia that goes into being a lawyer and playing by the rules. It doesn't sound like this guy would be very good at that and his rule-breaking could have serious effects on people's lives, the reputation of the courts, etc.
Well ... he lied in a profession based on the principle of speaking truth to sell ads. You can't sell ads if your writers aren't buying in to the journalistic process. He broke that shit good. And he kept lying. And manufacturing evidence. I can see the reasoning with the CA and NY Bar from keeping out a person with a history of those things.