Approximately 20 protesters gathered near the Link newspaper office yesterday holding signs and chanting for the resignation of editor-in-chief Justin Giovannetti. The protest lasted less than 10 minutes before being broken up by security.
None of the protesters were willing to give their names or speak on the record about why they were calling for his resignation. An individual standing back from the group who claimed he himself wasn’t protesting but that he knew those behind it said that the protesters were upset about what they called the “slander” of CSU councillors in Link stories lately. He claimed that the protesters believe the slander was done in the interest of helping a potential campaign by councillor Lex Gill, who they say is in a relationship with Giovannetti.
Speaking after the protest, Giovannetti would not confirm or deny the relationship, saying it’s “none of their business.” He reiterated that if anyone had concerns about the Link, they could send letters or address the editors themselves by email or phone.
Giovannetti also said “It’s definitely strange that the same day that the CSU refuses to comment [to the Link] on the resignation of their fourth VP that there’s this protest and that they’re standing outside of it,” and insinuated in a tweet that the protest could have been an attempt to draw attention away from the CSU’s political issues.
Members of the CSU executive were seen watching the protest, and Giovannetti said they claimed to have heard it from their office one floor above, something he claimed is not realistic.
An email sent to the Concordian late Monday evening signed only by “Your Concordia Students” read “Students are not paying a fee to finance a political party; we want the Link to be independent and representative. We want the Link to live up to the prominent reputation that it has established. The protest was not against freedom of speech, it was against an editor who is tarnishing the reputation and credibility of one our school’s reputable social sources. Petitions are being signed.”
– With reporting from Sarah “Sweetie” Deshaies
maybe they wont give their names for other reasons….justin is targeting certain individuals and attempting to ruin their reputations for his (and consequently lex gill’s political campaign). and even if they dont confirm the relationship, justin is still being biased in the material published in the link.
What other reasons could those possibly be? I highly doubt Justin has the ability to or even the desire to “ruin” a bunch of protesters reputations if that is what you are alluding to.
Secondly if you can’t give firm evidence of Justin targeting individuals and attempting to ruin their reputation then throwing around claims like that just makes you look like a fool.
Thirdly, your claims all stem from the faulty belief that Justin has end all power over the Link. He does not, never mind the fact that he is the editor and does not write all the articles (although I do realize he writes quite a number of them) he also has many people working for him, who are aware of his relationship who most likely would not want their reputations sullied by him posting false or biased information. So his work is overseen.
I’d just like to end on the note that all of the protesters claims are completely unfounded. They haven’t given a single shred of evidence other than saying Justin is “hard” and “unfair” on CSU politicians. Yes he is hard on them, as all newspapers should be especially when Concordia is experiencing such politically turbulent times as now, and calling someone “unfair” in their writing is usually just an attempt to avoid their argument.
Agreed, NorthAmerican90.
People gathering for less than 10 minutes who don’t give any actual reason for why Justin should resign and refuse to identify themselves hardly deserve to be called protesters. This smells strongly like an attempt to make an issue of a non-issue. Dare I suggest6 it may even be politically motivated?
Suspicious and weird.
I hope no one in their right mind signs that petition. These protesters won’t give transparent reasons as to how his relationship affects his editorial skills and they won’t even give their names. Shady dealings are shady and until there is more of a concrete reason as to why Justin should go, no one should be calling for his resignation.
I am so very confused as to how these anonymous individuals have apparently acquired such concrete information about Giovannetti’s personal life that they feel they are in a position to make vocal judgements on how a relationship that may or may not exist affects his work. This doesn’t seem very credible…