YOUR TAKE: Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect on Cover of Rolling Stone

 by Frank Ouellette

Rolling Stone recently announced on its Facebook page that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Jahar Tsarnaev will be featured on the cover of its August issue.

"In our new issue, contributing editor Janet Reitman delivers a deeply reported account of the life of (alleged) Boston bomber Jahar Tsarnaev," reads a Tuesday status posted on the music magazine's Facebook page. 

Patch is reporting that Woonsocket-based CVS Pharmacy will not sell the magazine at its stores. 

Here is how Patch blogger Frank Zabrierek from Nashua New Hampshire opened his latest blog which urges readers to boycott Rolling Stone magazine:

Is it just me, ladies and gentlemen, or has the world gone crazy??? A once respectable popular media outlet, that’s photo exposure on its front cover could send even a mediocre rock group -- such as Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show in the late 70s -- into instant international celebrity status has now become nothing more than a national rag. 

Specifically, I’m referring to Rolling Stone magazine’s decision to feature Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a “glamour shot” type photo on the front cover of its latest issue. In essence, Rolling Stone is now “celebrifying” this sick, demented mass murderer in much the same fashion as it did legitimate rock celebrities like Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison about 40 years ago. The inscription underneath Tsarnaev’s photo reads, “The Bomber -- How a Popular, Promising Student Was Failed by His Family, Fell into Radical Islam and Became a Monster”. The headline on the article itself states, “He was a charming kid with a bright future…”. Funny thing, the article never mentions that just prior to the Marathon Bombings, Tsarnaev was averaging D’s and F’s in his most recent semester at UMass-Dartmouth. Is that the sign of “a promising student with a bright future”??? 

Let us know what you think about the decision by posting a comment below.