Press Reports
Uniquely for a crowd even in the north, the St Peter’s Field meeting it was covered by reporters from the national press, which at that stage consisted (like that in the modern United States) of a number of regional papers as well as those based in the capital: the Times, Leeds Mercury, Liverpool Mercury, The Courier (London), Sherwin’s Political Register, as well as the Manchester press: the radical Manchester Observer and the loyalist Manchester Mercury and Wheeler’s Manchester Chronicle. With the exception of the two Manchester loyalist papers, the press was united in its horror at what happened.
| Chronicle |
Manchester Observer. The activist Manchester Observer had been involved in organising the Manchester rally. It’s report, however, is surprisingly light on detail of the massacre itself, and devotes space to satire. Later it would publish a serial, Manchester Massacre, which brought together much of the early evidence, including the John Lees inquest.
| Manchester Observer |
The London Times, then a reforming paper, sent its chief reporter John Tyas to Manchester. He saw it all from the hustings and was arrested, which delayed his report.
| Times |