Parson blames journalism for its own regrettable failures. He should apologize. | Guest comments

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Missouri Governor Mike Parson opened a morning press appearance on Thursday with this: Good afternoon, and thank you all for coming this morning.

The rest of Parsons’ statement was equally inconsistent.

In a rambling rant, the Republican governor accused the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of a felony. The newspaper had published an article exposing a privacy vulnerability in a public database maintained by the state’s elementary and secondary education department.

History says that anyone with a basic understanding of computer technology could discover the Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of state teachers.

You would think the governor would be concerned about this kind of digital flaw. You would think he would thank the newspaper for its reporting and decision to notify the state of the computer problem before publishing his article, so that the vulnerability could be patched.

No. Instead, Parson decided to criminalize journalism by referring the case to prosecutors for allegedly stealing information online.

This case is serious business, Parson said. The state is committed to bringing to justice anyone who hacked our system and anyone who aided or encouraged them to do so.

More level-headed politicians rushed in, and quickly. It is clear that the governor’s office has a fundamental misunderstanding of both web technology and industry standard procedures for reporting security vulnerabilities, State Representative Tony Lovasco, a Republican tweeted.

Journalists who responsibly sound the alarm on data privacy are not criminal hacking, he said.

He is a weak man who blames others for their own failures, the House Democratic Caucus said. Abusing the legal system to attack a journalist who was trying to do the right thing is utterly shameful and terribly totalitarian.

In his remarks, Parson said fixing the potential violation could cost taxpayers $ 50 million. It is not known where the Governor got this number possibly, as much of what he says he made up.

But if it costs $ 50 million to protect the identities of thousands of Missouri teachers, it is money to be spent. And it’s a devastating accusation from the Parsons administration that a costly glitch in its DESE database has gone unnoticed and uncorrected for months.

What would have happened if the Post-Dispatch had not discovered the vulnerability? Someone with different motives could have stolen thousands of Social Security numbers before the state found out about the error.

It’s possible the newspaper saved the state millions of dollars by reporting the problem before anyone else found out.

It is absurd to prosecute journalists and editors. While we expect prosecutors to dismiss the case, even the threat of legal action robs the Post-Dispatch of significant revenue for other work and chills the efforts of every journalist in the state.

Parson should withdraw his remarks and apologize. Then he should repair the states computers.

Is he up to the task? He botched states’ COVID response. He has allowed unregulated and abusive youth homes to operate in Missouri with impunity. He kept innocent people in jail.

Hes turned the state university system into a plum of patronage. Hes ignored the ongoing violence in urban areas of Missouris. He signed a clearly unconstitutional law.

Now this. Does Mike Parson know the difference between day and night? On Thursday the answer was no.

About Opinions in the Missourian: The Opinions of Missourians section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The opinions presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with an original response or topic, visit our submission form.

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