Tuesday 25th November

Metro

Article 1
Headline: Barclays funding gets the nod
Section: Metro Business
Written by: ?
Page: 48

Outline: This article is about the sale of a third of Barclays Bank to investors from the Middle East. The best caption to sum up this article is "making a mountain out of a mole hill". This is because of the writer's attempt to magnify the opposition by Barclays shareholders to the deal. The words used are "More than one in ten voters...opposed or abstained from plans" so in plain english this would be written as 'more than 10%. This doesn't represent significant opposition to the plan at all but rather the fact that just under 90% approved the deal. Why then is the writer trying to paint a different picture to the readers, does he or she have an objection to a third of Barclays in the hands of Arab investors, who knows?

In summary this is an article which attempts to portray a distorted view of how the shareholders actually voted hence it's been given a negative rating.

Article Verdict: Negative


Manchester Evening News (City Edition)

Article 1
Headline: Barclays shareholders back £7bn Middle East deal
Section: Business
Written by: ?
Page: 5

Outline: This reports on the same story as the Metro however is complete contrast as it acknowledges that the proposed deal was approved by shareholders. It refers to the investors as "Abu Dhabi royalty" and mentions the fact that one of the investors, Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan is owner of Manchester City. This helps to paint the investors in a positive light as Manchester City is a popular football team with locals of Manchester.

The article also provides more detail on the percentage of shareholders in favour of the deal (80%) but also makes reference to those opposed to the deal.

Overall the article provides a balanced view of the details involved in the proposed deal and does not attempt to cast any personal opinions on the deal thus it's given a positive rating.

Article Verdict: Positive