News Has Been Secondary to Service: Josephus Daniels, William Sims, and the American Press in World War I

Newspaper coverage of the U.S. Navy in World War I played a significant role in civil-military tensions within the Navy Department. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels cultivated good relations with newspapers, and his attitude toward managing the press was largely limited to protecting sensitive information and ensuring good publicity for the navy. The American naval commander stationed in Europe had a more sophisticated outlook. William S. Sims had fewer qualms about censorship than Daniels, and he realized that the press could be used to his advantage in shaping the administration’s policies. The result was that the press became a pawn in the fractious relationship between the Wilson administration and the senior naval officer in Europe.