The Times’ 1942 Pulitzer Prize

May 5, 1942: Court Marks End of Fight

On a front page dom­in­ated by news of World War II — “R.A.F. Blasts Nazis Again”; “Many From Los Angeles Lis­ted as War Cas­u­al­ties”; “Sug­ar Ra­tion Books Is­sued to Thou­sands” — The Times also ran two stor­ies about its award. Un­der the head­line “Court Marks End of Fight,” the pa­per re­coun­ted the four-year court battle’s end on the same day, co­in­cid­ent­ally, that the Pulitzer was awar­ded.

An ed­it­or­i­al ac­cept­ing the award noted that “The Times could have saved it­self nearly four years of lit­ig­ated grief and a great deal of money had it quietly sub­mit­ted to al­low­ing it­self to be cen­sored. … It seemed to this pa­per, however, that this cheap and easy way out would be at the last­ing ex­pense of its own read­ers and of those of every oth­er news­pa­per.”

Sources: Los Angeles Times archive