Every editor or proprietor of a book, newspaper or serial, and every manager of a copartnership or corporation by which any book, newspaper or serial is issued, is chargeable with the publication of any matter contained in any such book, newspaper or serial, but in every prosecution for libel the defendant may show in his or her defense that the matter complained of was published without his or her knowledge or fault and against his or her wishes by another who had no authority from the defendant to make such publication, and was retracted by the defendant as soon as known with an equal degree of publicity.