I'm pretty tired of sensationalist NSA stories here on HN, as well, but I think you're really wrong here.

First of all, it is a factual post, nothing sensationalist.

Second, it is obviously on topic (warrant canaries and their failure modes have been discussed here several times, and usually very civilly).

Third, just because "some guy" tells you "hey, everything is fine" doesn't make it true. You just declared that you're satisfied with the explanation, which I can understand, but demoting the story means that you don't believe that someone can rationally think otherwise. That's unfair, IMO.

Fourth, if you're posting a warrant canary and fail to update it, you deserve the suspicion and discussion. That's kind of the whole point. So: working as designed. :-)