Missing the Freedom Beat
the time Smith's blunder was discovered, the story had al- ready gone out over the news wires.
Despite leaks like this, Washburn con-cludes, the story of the atom bomb re-mained "reasonably quiet." He believes that much of the credit belongs to Byron Price, the ex-newsman who directed the Office of Censorshin. Price resisted the army's call to impose a total news black- out on atomic (and other) news, opting in- stead for a voluntary approach. Total cen- sorship, he insisted, would have...