Statistics showed that as the news kept showing the deaths of soldiers, the country's morale kept decreasing. Although many do not know about it, the Battle of Bataan in the Philippines was one of the battles that involved the most self-censorship. Morale was already very low at this time, and printing news articles about the Bataan Death March would only tear the country further apart. So the president visited news stations to ask that they don't print stories about the deaths or battles, and only print victories that the United States was having. The newspapers could have printed the stories if they wanted to, but instead the self-censored their articles. .
Also in World War II, reporters and authors in Germany were discouraged to publish stories about the Holocaust due to fear instilled by the Third Reich. When Hitler took over, there was no government interference in the media. However one of the first things he did when he got into power was take over the media. Reporters that disagreed with the Nazi's political stand-points and beliefs were killed, beaten into fear, or exiled. So those that remained in their positions in the media were forced into Nazi reporting. The news teams that were not taken over directly by the government were challenged with competitive prices and were forced to close or adapt to the Nazi's way of reporting.
Another reason why the media self-censors content is because of public safety. In times of war, if the media publishes the whereabouts of army troops or the president, it could give the enemy an advantage. So the media goes to military leaders or government officials to ask if what they want to print is giving away too much, or would be too controversial. The reporters can still print the stories if they choose to, but instead they choose to self-censor in order to maintain safety and morality within the country. Besides public safety in war times, there are other times when the public needs to be kept safe.
