Although censorship of the press was (for the most part) abided by, certain journalists and newspapers pressed their luck by using direct language that did little to hide the truth of the war. They exploited loopholes and rode a fine line between obeying censorship laws and spreading raw information.
One such example of this was during World War II, when the Chicago Tribune published an article on June 7, 1942. It reported that U.S. military forces had been aware of the size of Japanese fleets at the battle of Midway for “several days” before the actual attack, implying that the Japanese operational code was broken by the U.S.¹ This paper was published through the exploitation of a loophole found in the Code of Wartime Practices. It was amended in the next edition of the pamphlet. This instance made it clear to other reporters — both during that time and in the future — that censorship laws can very well be both respected and bypassed in favor of spreading information that people have a right to know.
