Gov. Parson holds fake news accountable.

What Hacker News said

Cites threatofrain · 2021-11 · on “Reporter who told Missouri officials of website flaw did 'nothing out of line'”

> The governor's political fundraising committee is running ads making this a "fake news" issue. [this video] If anyone is curious what the political ad looks like.

Critical tyingq · 2021-10 · on “Viewing website HTML code is not illegal or “hacking,” prof. tells Missouri gov.”

Ah, so finally the detail. The site was apparently an ASP.NET site, and they were putting the whole SSN into the "VIEWSTATE" object. Which looks something like this in the html: <input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATE" id="__VIEWSTATE" value="BASE64STUFFHERE="> There is a choice to encrypt it, but I'm skeptical how useful that is, or that it was enabled in this case. So the "hack" was "view source" -> decode some base64 data sitting in plain sight. Edit: A little bonus. This bizarre video from a PAC the governor started, still trying to call this "hacking": [this video]

Critical shadowgovt · 2021-11 · on “Reporter who told Missouri officials of website flaw did 'nothing out of line'”

Regarding "It's playing great with his constituents:" His PAC is running ads like this. [this video] To a lot of us, that looks like nonsense, but you have to remember how far through the looking-glass a lot of the conservative populace has gone... The press is now the enemy in their mind, and they don't understand technology well enough to get why these claims are ridiculous. So he gets to build steam and any pushback is just seen as more "fake news" coverage that would (of course) support their fellows in the media. It's deeply frustrating because it's a form of social jujitsu built atop existing mistrust, and there aren't good ways to combat it.

Critical badRNG · 2021-12 · on “Reporter likely to be charged for using “view source” feature on web browser”

Thompson is a small-town Missourian elected prosecutor, facing pressure from fellow conservatives to "hold the fake news accountable" as stated in the latest attack ad against the reporter from a conservative PAC [1]. At best it's a coin toss imo. [1] [this video]

Critical badRNG · 2021-12 · on “Reporter likely to be charged for using “view source” feature on web browser”

This definitely is not "much ado about nothing." I prefer the Verge article on this one though [1]. Relevant quote from the article: > They turned the case over to Cole County Prosecuting Attorney Locke Thompson on Monday, December 27. Governor Parson then held a press conference on Wednesday, December 29, where he cited a state statute related to computer tampering and repeatedly suggested Thompson should use it to prosecute Renaud and the paper. It was just earlier this week that this was turned over to the prosecutor's office. This prosecutor is an elected official, and the Missouri conservative PAC has put their money behind this by placing attack ads against the reporter, and framing th

Critical badRNG · 2021-12 · on “Reporter likely to be charged for using “view source” feature on web browser”

IANAL, but the local Missouri computer crime statute is very broad [1]. Technically, the reporter seems to have factually "Accessed a computer, a computer system, or a computer network, and intentionally examined information about another person" without "authorization." Considering the conservative PAC for the state has already pushed attack ads against the reporter [2], and the fact that the prosecutor is elected (potentially supported by conservative PACs), I definitely see a possibility of this going to court and potentially arriving at a conviction. Again, IANAL, and I don't know the jurisprudence or case history behind this particular statute. [1] [LINK] [2] [this video]

Critical badRNG · 2021-12 · on “Reporter likely to be charged for using “view source” feature on web browser”

>This entire debacle is a direct attack on journalists. As if this attack on a free press wasn't brazen enough, local PACs have already put out attack ads against the journalist, to frame this as the governor "holding fake news accountable." [1] [1] [this video]

Critical reuben364 · 2022-04 · on “iViewed your API keys”

See: this ad from Gov Parson in response to a disclosure about a state website leaking social security numbers of teachers [this video]