Byron Price (March 25, 1891–August 6, 1981) gave up a
career as executive news editor of the Associated Press in
December 1941 to head the newly created Office of Censorship. He guided the news media through an effective system
of self-censorship during World War II. His success surprised skeptics expecting a return to the heavy-handed and
unpopular policies of the previous world war. Under Price’s
common-sense administration, journalists avoided news
topics that would have provided information to the enemy,
and they demonstrated the potential for press-military cooperation. Price’s legacy was twofold: a model for wartime
censorship that kept citizens substantially informed without
compromising security, and a press that emerged from the
twentieth century’s greatest challenge with its First Amendment freedom intact.
Price was born March 25, 1891, on a farm in Topeka,
Indiana, where he performed chores for his parents, John
Price and the former Emaline Barnes. He took to journalism early, writing “The Family Record” with a lead pencil
for two years starting in 1901. The project also gave him
a taste of censorship when his father ordered him to find
another hobby. Price nevertheless joined the staffs of his
high school and university newspapers as well as the Journal in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
He took a job with the United Press wire service after
graduating from Wabash College in 1912 but quickly
switched to the larger Associated Press. Price took a leave
of absence from 1917 to 1919 to serve as an infantry officer
in France during World War I. After his return, he served
the AP as a political reporter, Washington bureau news editor, columnist, and, beginning in 1937, executive news editor. In his final position, Price supervised the wire service’s
news production. He encouraged new, creative writing
techniques but insisted on accuracy and impartiality. “The
Associated Press is my religion,” he said.
His long career brought him in contact with hundreds
of important national figures, including Franklin D. Roosevelt. When America declared war on the Axis Powers after
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt chose Price
to ensure information of value did not reach the enemy.
The president gave Price virtually a free hand to create
and enforce the domestic censorship code (as opposed to
the mandatory war zone censorship administered by the
armed forces). Price and his staff canvassed military and
government offices to create lists of sensitive news topics,
which the Office of Censorship printed and distributed to
journalists in January 1942. The code had no legal penalties for violations because of the First Amendment prohibition on interference with a free press. Nevertheless,
journalists followed the code. Like Price, they viewed
wartime censorship as a necessary evil and endorsed it if
run intelligently.
Price worked to ensure censorship topics were reasonable. When journalists had a legitimate complaint about too
much war news being withheld, he acted as their advocate
in negotiations—usually successful—with the army, navy,
and White House. Observers considered him above partisan
politics. The New York Times called Price “an evenhanded,
canny and unflappable administrator.”
Further Reading
Flint, Peter B. “Byron Price, Wartime Chief of U.S. Censorship,
Is Dead.” New York Times, August 8, 1981, 44.
Kluckhorn, Frank L. “President Appoints Byron Price to Direct
Wartime Censorship.” New York Times, December 17, 1941,
1, 5.
Koop, Theodore F. Weapon of Silence. Chicago: University of
Chicago, 1946.
“Price, Byron.” Current Biography: Who’s News and Why, 1942.
New York: H.W. Wilson, 1942, 681–683.
Price, Byron. “The Censor Defends the Censorship.” New York
Times Magazine, February 11, 1945, 11, 32–33.
Sweeney, Michael S. Secrets of Victory: The Offi ce of Censorship
and the American Press and Radio in World War II. Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina, 2001.
Michael S. Sweeney