The Guardian festeja 200 años, recordando sus propios errores | Actualidad continental.com.ar - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from continental.com.ar Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Last modified on Fri 7 May 2021 07.07 EDT
A daily newspaper cannot publish for 200 years without getting some things wrong. This one has made its share of mistakes.
There will always be errors of news judgment given the nature of the work. Tight deadlines meant the sinking of the Titanic was relegated to a small spot on page 9 in 1912; errors of scientific understanding resulted in a 1927 article that promoted the virtues of asbestos, and others in the late 1970s that warned of a looming ice age.
But the most noticeable missteps stem not from the news pages but from the editorial column. For it is here that readers find out what the paper thinks about the great issues of the day. And it is here that mistakes are inked most indelibly into history, whether they relate to suffrage, reform or, most notably in recent years, the debate over Brexit.
Last modified on Fri 7 May 2021 07.12 EDT
On the day the Guardian was born in Manchester on 5 May 1821, the big story was taking place 4,800 miles away on an island in the south Atlantic.
The first edition of the Manchester Guardian, published on 5 May 1821. Photograph: Guardian News & Media Archive/The Guardian
The fact that it took weeks for news of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death on St Helena to become known shows how communication has sped up down the years. It also shows just how long the Guardian has been around.
This was the world of the first Industrial Revolution, built around steam power and textiles, a time when Manchester businessmen wanted to harness the power of the press to push for the vote. Electric power was a thing of the future. The rich got around on horseback; the poor walked.