Rolling Stone Controversy

            The prominent Rolling Stone magazine controversy is taking over the web and newspapers all around. “’Jahar’s World”’ is a completely new angle on who Dzhokhar “Jahar” Tsarnaev is as a person. If someone wanted to avoid reading the article and not have anything to do with it, they couldn’t! Rolling Stone plastered Jahar’s face onto the front cover of their magazine and it makes the terrorist seem like a guiltless young male. The Rolling Stone article and cover of the bomber Jahar Tsarnaev humanizes the man who was anything but.

            The article and cover had hundreds of reactions; most of them were in the form of anger. Rolling Stone did not think thoroughly about how the city of Boston would protest such an act as this. News stands, local shops, and big name pharmacies have taken their form of protest in boycotting the magazine. Rolling Stone editors retaliate to the negative reviews saying that 40 years earlier they had cult leader Charles Manson on the front cover and an interview with him from inside the prison which won a National Magazine award. Times have changed; technology was not as big as it is now, that magazine cover was not heard about all around the world through social net working sites like Twitter or Facebook. It may have won an award but Rolling Stone doesn’t have that excuse now.

 When a writer or journalist describes a man, who deliberately harmed citizens of Boston, as “charming” you get the impression that having the image of the bomber on the front of the magazine doesn’t seem like a big deal for them. It is completely inappropriate to make it seem like this terrorist is treated as equally to countless other celebrities that have been on the cover. When a celebrity is placed on the front of the magazine it is quite an honor to have. Putting the face of a bomber on the front of the magazine makes it seem like anyone with an interesting story can be a first page star. Even if you are terrorist who hates America and what it stands for and bombed a well known race, you can still be on the front of Rolling Stone. “’The fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is young, and in the same age group as many as our readers”’ The editors of Rolling Stone state, “’Makes it all the more important for us to examine the complexities of this issue and gain a more complete understanding of how a tragedy like this happens.”’ Rolling Stone has an audience of wide variety- whether it is teenagers with an interest in new music artists or adults reading up on what’s new in the world. Understanding the complexity of Tsarnaev is one thing but having him on the front cover of a widely known magazine is another. If Rolling Stone wanted to have an article of the tragedy in their magazine why did they not have a victim of the bombings on the front cover? There are countless people they could have put on the front cover like Jeff Bauman, a man who lost both of his legs due to the tragedy or how about Heather Abott who lost her foot due to the explosion. Anyone who had witnessed this tragedy would have been better than the killer himself.

             The bombings in Boston were truly horrific. Bostonians are still feeling the effects from it every single day. Rolling Stone magazine did not think too clearly about how their cover would affect the people and victims of the tragedy. Writing “’Jahar’s World”’ was not the smartest move. The article had interviews from people that knew Jahar personally so the readers did not really get to look at him from an outside point of view. Idolizing the terrorist and putting him on the front page was the worst action Rolling Stone magazine could have done.