Wouldn't she essentially end up the same way or very similar, her life would still be in jeopardy?
She delivers the incriminating evidence to Ben (faux James Taylor) and he blackmails the company as he isn't a reporter. Ben wouldn't hesitate to point out Karen as the source of his information, we know they are ruthless as they kill her and make it look a suicide, so she would come out very close the same way, wouldn't she?
I think so. She was too dumb to try and contact him via the Guardian switchboard, so she was probably headed for an early grave for many reasons. Here's what didn't make sense to me: He was using a real (in the miniseries) Guardian reporter's name, but looked nothing like the man. If you go to the Guardian's website, you can click on any reporter's name in the byline, and it'll take you to a page with that reporters photo and a list of their recent articles and columns, like this one for Owen Bowcott:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/owenbowcott
She was obviously somewhat computer-savvy - why didn't she go look that guy up on the web? The way they did that subplot just didn't ring true for me. It's as if the script was roughed out 20 or 30 years ago, when newspapers didn't have web sites.
I essentially thought the same thing about his posing as an established reporter, but being very un-computer-savvy myself, I wondered why if she read so many columns by James Taylor, she didn't see his real face pictured on some of those columns, but even as you noted, she was computer-savvy (want to see me sometime trying to download those files like she was doing? I'm lucky to find the on switch) so surely she could have looked him up at the newspaper online and found the face of the real James Taylor.
Scriptwise, the story seemed like it had loose ends to go other ways. Karen took the stick (new computer term on me) with the files on it to Brian, was it, who ended up being in the accident as well.
I got the impression Brian would be the revelation as to where the documents could be found, instead of Sidney's Star Trek friend.
As far as being as dumb as the bag of hammers, I thought she was capable as the investigator noted, she was brave, we'll say she had the nerve, but there was something not so sharp about her as well. I would have liked to have seen the character carry on a bit further than she did in the program, but I was also disappointed to see Sidney (whom I recognized from Chalk) killed instantly as well.
James Taylor wrote articles, not columns or opinion pieces, and articles are not accompanied by a photo of the reporter.
"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."