Clearly the US was not allowing accurate early reporting of the real naval and aircraft losses at Pearl Harbor??
Was that mainly for intel reasons to keep the Japanese uncertain about the extent of their initial successes?
Or would we know that the Japanese military had a fairly accurate damage assessment? In which case censoring the information was mainly about keeping the US public in the dark??
Anyone know about how decisions were made (and who made them) on what info to reveal?
It is not a definitive answer to your question, but I recommend listening to Roosevelt's fireside chat at #8. Here is a quote. (I got the transcript from tomorrow's post.)
Of necessity there will be delays in officially confirming or denying reports of operations, but we will not hide facts from the country if we know the facts and if the enemy will not be aided by their disclosure.
To all newspapers and radio stations - I say this: You have a most grave responsibility to the nation now and for the duration of this war
If you feel that your government is not disclosing enough of the truth, you have every right to say so. But - in the absence of all the facts, as revealed by official sources - you have no right in the ethics of patriotism to deal out unconfirmed reports in such a way as to make people believe that they are gospel truth.
Then from later in the talk:
Your government knows that for weeks Germany has been telling Japan that if Japan did not attack the United States, Japan would not share in dividing the spoils with Germany when peace came. She was promised by Germany that if she came in she would receive the complete and perpetual control of the whole of the Pacific area - and that means not only the Far East, but also all of the islands in the Pacific, and also a stranglehold on the west coast of North and Central and South America.
We now [sic] also that Germany and Japan are conducting their military and naval operations in accordance with a joint plan. That plan considers all peoples and nations which are not helping the Axis powers as common enemies and each and every one of the Axis Powers.
And that's the official gospel truth. You have to give Roosevelt credit. He is really good at what he does.