Byron Price
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Director of Censorship (1941-1945) · United States
On the regime page: Roosevelt administration
6 quotes, oldest first. Filter with other speakers.
“So I begin this discussion, as we must begin any discussion of censorship, with a recognition of certain basic truths. The first of these is that you will never like censorship. Everything the censor does, from opening private letters to keeping Page One stories out of print, is contrary to all we have been taught to regard as right and proper. Because you are Americans you resent this sort of interference.”
Price, appointed Director of Censorship in December 1941, addressed newspaper editors four months after the United States entered the war about the voluntary Code of Wartime Practices issued in January 1942.
Byron Price, "Censorship and the Press," address prepared 16 April 1942 for the American Society of Newspaper Editors and for broadcast over the Blue Network, printed in Wartime Censorship of Press and Radio, ed. Robert E. Summers (The Reference Shelf, vol. 16, no. 1; New York: H. W. Wilson, 1943), p. 29 Source
“The Code of Wartime Practices for the American Press was a pioneering venture. It was far from perfect, and even now is undergoing a revision in the light of experience. But it had this underlying quality which I believe deserves to endure: It put newspapers and other publications on their honor. It enlisted every writer and every editor in the army of the republic.”
Price describes the voluntary press code and its purpose to the editors who were asked to apply it themselves, under a code that was voluntary.
Byron Price, "Censorship and the Press," address prepared 16 April 1942 for the American Society of Newspaper Editors and for broadcast over the Blue Network, printed in Wartime Censorship of Press and Radio, ed. Robert E. Summers (The Reference Shelf, vol. 16, no. 1; New York: H. W. Wilson, 1943), p. 30 Source
“You are all aware that we are in the midst of psychological as well as physical warfare. Rumor and misinformation march to battle under the same command with tanks and planes. [...] Irresponsible journalism is reprehensible anytime, anywhere; in wartime it may easily become a crime against national security.”
Price presses editors on accuracy and responsibility, saying that some editors were forgetting that the country was at war. The press code had no legal force; editors were asked to comply.
Byron Price, "Censorship and the Press," address prepared 16 April 1942 for the American Society of Newspaper Editors and for broadcast over the Blue Network, printed in Wartime Censorship of Press and Radio, ed. Robert E. Summers (The Reference Shelf, vol. 16, no. 1; New York: H. W. Wilson, 1943), p. 32 Source
“The code was in the form of a request to newspapers and all other publications to refrain from publishing information on a given list of subjects, such as the movements of troops and ships, exact war production statistics, and the development of new military models, unless such information was given out officially.”
Price's report to the Vice President and the Speaker on the first year of the Office of Censorship, describing the Code of Wartime Practices issued on 15 January 1942.
Byron Price, Director of Censorship, letter of 21 January 1943 to Vice President Henry A. Wallace on the objectives and methods of the Office of Censorship, printed in the Congressional Record (Senate), vol. 89, 15 February 1943, pp. 938-941 Source
“In dealing with press and radio, the Office of Censorship has confined its request strictly to the field of information. In no case has it sought to control editorial or other opinion, or criticism.”
From the same report to Congress, stating the limits the Office set on its requests to newspapers and broadcasters.
Byron Price, Director of Censorship, letter of 21 January 1943 to Vice President Henry A. Wallace on the objectives and methods of the Office of Censorship, printed in the Congressional Record (Senate), vol. 89, 15 February 1943, pp. 938-941 Source
“Censorship in all its forms is so repugnant to a free people, so un-American in its concepts and its operations, that public uneasiness and widespread criticism would normally be expected. Instead, with very few exceptions, the public has been patient and understanding, quick to realize that censorship is a necessary evil and annoyance in wartime, and conscious that the staff is doing the best that human endeavor can do to administer censorship fairly and evenly and with no motive but to serve the national good.”
Price's assessment of public reaction to wartime censorship of the mails, cables and the press, with the Office then employing 14,377 people.
Byron Price, Director of Censorship, letter of 21 January 1943 to Vice President Henry A. Wallace on the objectives and methods of the Office of Censorship, printed in the Congressional Record (Senate), vol. 89, 15 February 1943, pp. 938-941 Source