The bar for submitting something to HN is quite low. (Just make an account. I think that's it - I don't think you need any particular karma level.) So, yes, you can get "slop" here - off topic, shilling, trolling, and just generally low-quality stuff. And lots of off topic.

And I generally oppose off topic stuff! But this story has kind of died out in the mainstream press, and I think it's a really important story. (But then, I suppose everybody who posts off topic stuff thinks that theirs is a really important story...)