The Breakfast Meeting: Hunting for Leakers, and Olympic Spotlight on Headphones

By NOAM COHEN

The F.B.I.'s hunt for leakers among the government's national security agencies has cast a chill over media coverage of those issues, Scott Shane reports, with the agencies declining interview requests or background briefings. At the same time, the Senate is considering legislation meant to limit intelligence officials' exchanges with reporters; that bill has been criticized by intelligence veterans and civil libertarians fear as counterproductive and raising constitutional questions. The criminal investigation was prompted by, among others, recent media disclosures on American cyberattacks on Iran and the so-called “kill list” of terrorist suspects approved for drone strikes. The reports were published by The New York Times, The Associated Press, Newsweek and other outlets, as well as in recent books by reporters for Newsweek and The Times.

A new YouTube channel run by the Center of Investigative Reporting - I Files - will host investigative journalism videos from a wide range of sources, including The New York Times, ABC, BBC, Al Jazeera and Investigative News Network. The channel is being supported by an $800,000 grant from the Knight Foundation is seeding the channel, which will share revenue with its content partners, TechCrunch reports.

Sexual harassment has long been accepted in the male-dominated world of virtual gaming communities, Amy O'Leary writes, but a number of highly publicized examples have caused executives in the $25 billion-a-year industry to take note. The harassment of the only woman among a team competing in Cross Assault tournament - by her coach, no less - has become a rallying cause. Said Tom Cannon, a prominent figure in the “fighting game” community: “The nasty undercurrent in the scene isn't a joke or a meme. It's something we need to fix.”

Sony on Thursday reported a 77 percent decline in operating profit for the quarter that ended in June, far below expectations, Reuters reported. The reasons cited included the weak global economy and exchange rate shifts, but more generally, it showed the challenges facing the new chief executive of Sony, Kazuo Hirai, who has vowed to revive the fortunes of the company.

The prominent use of branded headphones thus far has evaded Olympics officials, who are relentless in blocking unofficial sponsors from coasting on the publicity of the Games, Andrew Das and Andrew Martin report. At the swimming center, it is common to see competitors like Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps of the United States, Sun Yang of China and Park Tae-hwan of South Korea come to the starting blocks with headphones. Perhaps the most popular brand is Beats by Dr. Dre, they write, which provided free sets to many athletes; Phelps, however, wears a futuristic pair made by an Oregon company, Sol Republic, which was news to the company.