The cover of Rolling Stone has paid homage to countless accomplished musicians, influential political figures such as Barack Obama or Mitt Romney and movie stars like Clint Eastwood or John Travolta. While the professions may vary, most subjects are well respected or influential in their respective fields, a feat achieved by a lifetime of hard work.
So Rolling Stone’s choice to plaster the image of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect of the Boston Marathon bombing, comes as shock.
The official story from Rolling Stone is that the cover “falls within the traditions of journalism and Rolling Stone’s long-standing commitment to serious and thoughtful coverage of the most important political and cultural issues of our day.”
A more likely story is the alleged bomber’s image is merely bait to get the national media to focus on Rolling Stone for a while — which it has done very well.
What the editors of Rolling Stone fail to realize – or maybe just don’t care about – is that they are immortalizing someone accused of committing acts of terrorism. They are elevating Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and the acts he is accused of committing into a place normally only achievable by a lifetime of hard work. This gives a clear message to everyone in the nation: the fastest, easiest way to get famous is still mass murder and terrorism.
While people with a healthy mindset will not be affected by this message, a mentally unstable individual might.
An average of about 1 million people attempt suicide every year, according to the CDC. Many of these attempts are a cry for help — the last resort of someone desperate for attention.
When a person with this suicidal mindset sees the news coverage of these terrorist acts, they see that setting off a few bombs or shooting up a school will earn them nonstop attention from media for weeks.
Therapists and analysts will examine every detail of their life, debating back and forth about their motivations. People may even become sympathetic to their plight and see the killer as a victim as well.
A suicide attempt may get some attention from a few friends and family. Acts of terrorism will get the attention of a nation.
This glamorization of mass murderers has been a longtime tradition of the media, especially the 24-hour news channels. But while the news station’s coverage of any mass killing will eventually end, Rolling Stone’s cover image will never go away. Tsarnaev will be forever immortalized on the front cover of one of the most popular magazines in the nation, making it a far more lasting message that the fleeting coverage of the news stations.
Additionally, while the viewership of 24-hour news networks are primarily middle aged people — 75 percent over age 30 — Rolling Stone’s demographics are much younger, typically teenagers and young adults. Rolling Stone’s readers are also disproportionately white and male. In other words, people who read Rolling Stone are likely to look like Tsarnaev.
By putting Tsarnaev on the front cover, Rolling Stone is almost saying to its readers, “This guy looks just like you. He could be you.”
Reading the Rolling Stone article behind the image enforces this message and further immortalizes Tsarnaev. The article spans a whopping 12 pages, filled with the stories and images of Tsarnaev and his older brother from childhood to right before the bombing.
The pages contain interviews of the brothers’ friends, teachers and counselors. Without fail, every single person vouches that Tsarnaev was a normal kid – someone who they just can’t imagine doing what he is accused of doing.
Why Rolling Stone thinks this is “serious and thoughtful coverage” is baffling. Almost like clockwork, every time someone commits an act like this, their friends and family are quick to jump to the media and make these claims. Phrases like “the person I knew would never do something like this” have almost become cliché in the wake of a tragedy like the Boston Marathon bombing.
Interviews like this fill the entire article as it attempts to explain the brother’s lives leading up to the bombing of the Boston Marathon.
The brothers’ parents were divorced, their welfare benefits were cut, their rent was too high so they had to move and Dzhokhar didn’t fit in at college.
Again, why Rolling Stone thinks this is necessary to publish is confusing. Is Rolling Stone trying to justify the bombing? Making the Tsarnaev brothers out to be victims? Do they think that the brothers deserve sympathy?
Whatever their intention, the article is overwhelmingly positive, considering the situation. An uninformed reader could read almost the entire article without realizing that the subject has been accused of terrorism.
Rolling Stone immortalized someone who is accused of mass murder and terrorism. This earns them a quick jump in notoriety but ensures that these mass murders will continue to be something glamorized by the media.
Robert Klare is a 22-year-old engineering senior from New Orleans.