A worth read in depth article talks about the ties and interconnections between the spies and the journalists. It will take hardly 20min to read it completely.
>"A booming, renegade private intelligence industry is increasingly shaping (and misshaping) the news."
"Big law firms in New York and London are clamoring for the services of firms like Black Cube, an Israeli company that worked for Harvey Weinstein. Dictators are using private spies as freelance intelligence agents, and off-the-shelf technology is making it easier for them to monitor cellphones and hack emails. Over the past decade, spies for hire have become more emboldened — just as their power to influence events has become more pervasive."