It's a media issue. It's seemingly an important issue, but it isn't covered much. Admittedly, "media" is on the fringes of programming and business.
Besides, many programmers have a libertarian bent, and locking people up, often for questionable stuff, and treating them like dirt rankles. Not that many of them don't deserve to be worked to pay back societal debt. But don't abuse them and feed them junk.
Because the article wasn't about the media at all, that angle was merely a sensational (and false) hook to get people riled up and reading the article.
(Yes, I know I'm answering your rhetorical question).
Sort of what I was going to say too. There's something about the raw truth of people doing good things, uncovered by the media -- that seems correlated with Hacker News. But it's an interesting question.
