Certainly not gods, but immensely powerful organizations with varying moral frameworks and political interests all acting without the convenience of a global sy

Certainly not gods, but immensely powerful organizations with varying moral frameworks and political interests all acting without the convenience of a global system of legal and moral guidance that you and I operate in. Have you ever had to hassle about what's fair to put in a lease? Probably not, since the legal system provides for a pretty rigid API between landlords and tenants. The world we live in is a large series of such APIs, which are constantly and modified via our political and legal systems. The space ICs operate in simply does not have such rules nor anyone to enforce them. In a world where information is power and without a justice enforcer more powerful than the actors, an unknown leaker is significantly more of a threat than an allied IC. An ally will keep your secrets, and mutual secret-keeping reinforces alliances [1]. Journalists, on the other hand, are the gossip queens of the information trade, as they reap their rewards by telling secrets to everyone without much regard for when it's convenient. They are useful only as long as their access can be controlled. The entry points NSA/CIA used are being watched by them, or maybe even honeypotted. The space of potential attacks is enormous and it's a waste of resources for the Germans to look for them (if that's even legal) as long as America remains an ally. Please don't take what I am making as moral judgement of one way or another here, just as the practical analysis of the system I imagine these organizations to operate in. 1. Similar to high school cliques or criminals where mutual blackmail creates alliances where there is no access access to the normal judicial system, contracts, etc.