Letter to the Editor: What you also need to know to get the full story

Letters Vannina Maestracci — Published September 16, 2025 2 minutes

In its last issue, The Link published an editorial entitled “You only know half the story.” Ironically, this was also exactly what this piece was doing by cherry-picking and arranging events to fit The Link’s narrative.  

The Link focuses on “advocacy journalism” meaning it supports specific points of view on several issues. This is clearly stated in its mandate –but who looks at a mandate before reading an article?

This advocacy might not always be obvious. The Link uses elements associated with journalism, mimicking the style you might see in a newspaper and by extension giving readers the impression that the same journalistic standards are applied.

Yet, on closer inspection, one might notice some differences.

The Link routinely uses anonymous sources, something that in journalism is only done very sparingly, in exceptional cases.

It likes to quote “organizations” making “statements” – words that give weight but that often refer to a social media account with no mention of if it represents one, ten or 1,000 people.

The Link often foregoes context entirely. In the editorial, it writes that “over 11,000 Concordia students went on strike” last year. This is technically true and you’d be forgiven for thinking that thousands gathered on campus. But 11,000 is the number of students represented by the student associations who voted for the strike. Only by clicking on the hyperlink in that paragraph will you find out that “around 100 people” started off the demonstration and that “over two dozen students were picketing classes.”

The Link also regularly omits parts of answers provided to them, even when it directly answers an issue raised in the article. Writing about the university’s investments, the editorial names two companies in the portfolio. It however does not mention this part of an answer given to them back in April: “The companies you mention are with portfolio managers from which we plan to withdraw as part of the final phase of our transition to 100 per cent sustainable investments, which we announced more than five years ago and are completing this year.”

The Link is of course a student publication, a learning space where mistakes will be made. But by proclaiming itself an advocacy publication, it can’t in the same breath claim to provide the full story. In the words of the editorial itself: “we invite you to remain critical and resist taking everything at face value.”

- Concordia University spokesperson, Vannina Maestracci

This article originally appeared in Volume 46, Issue 2, published September 16, 2025.