that very smart reporter is joe menn. his investigators for-- investigation rather for reuters led to big changes at microsoft. i think i read about this in every newspaper there was, but you were the guy who figured it out. explain to me, they knew but didn't tell, why not? joe: two former employees-- well, let me say i have different sources for different bits of the story. two people very familiar with what happened said that microsoft executives were very concerned that there would be retaliation from the chinese government if-- scott: microsoft's business in china? joe: right. so you know, google famously started doing this in 2012, but if google has to warn you about china, google is-- google search is already gone from china. so, microsoft has a lot more skin in the game. microsoft does a fair amount of business in china. and if they were to warn people that the chinese government, in this case, was reading their email, things might go badly for them in china. that's what they were worried about. jon: you know what

our reporters joe menn of reuters and jon swartz of usa today this week on "press:here." [music]