How should you approach this situation? Which of the two leaders should you talk to, and why?

The leader I would talk to is the CEO.  He is clearly the one who has the most influence.  He evidently has great influence over the COO being that the COO basically wants me to mind my business.  I would approach the CEO by stressing that employees are not happy with the lack of communication and that upper management is responsible for ensuring employees through communication about the state of the organization.  It is an ethical responsibility for an organization to be sociably responsible both within the organization as well as within the community.  By doing so, employees tend to be more prideful of their positions, they have higher morale, the identity of the organization is enhanced, and as always employees tend to perform better (Valentine & Godkin, 2016).  I would explain all  of this to CEO to get my point across as to why he should be more sociable and more open with the goals and the strategic direction of the organization.