Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is not a rock star.
He is—allegedly, the libel rules of journalism require me to say—a terrorist and a murderer in the Boston Marathon bombing, which claimed three lives and forever changed hundreds more.
And yet there he is, staring out at all of us on the cover of Rolling Stone’s latest issue—which lands on newsstands today—as if he were Jay Z or Kanye or Robin Thicke or Madonna or Britney or someone like them. Beneath his thick, tussled hair and his slightly detached stare we read the cover-story headline and its accompanying blurb: “The Bomber: How a Popular, Promising Student Was Failed by His Family, Fell Into Radical Islam and Became a Monster.”
The hue and cry over the issue has been instantaneous and strident, an oddly unifying cultural moment for those who believe Tsarnaev’s presence on cover of the frequently controversial mag automatically qualifies as glorification of his heinous (alleged) acts.
Retailers—Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Kmart, 7-11 and CVS—quickly announced that they would not be selling the issue. Country star John Rich tweeted, “You always think as an artist ‘If I ever get on the Rolling Stone I’ll know I’ve made it!’ That was until they started promoting terrorists.” Ozzy Osbourne’s famous children Jack and Kelly have called for a boycott of the magazine, while Karate Kid Ralph Macchio (of all people) has stepped out of the ’80s nostalgia files to retweet Entourage creator Doug Ellin’s message, “Making a great album isn’t enough to get you on the cover of rolling stone anymore. Blowing up kids is. #pathetic.” Baseball players, pro wrestlers, and a growing list of heavy metal musicians (among many others) have all denounced the controversial cover as glorifying this (alleged) killer.
Hollywood publicist Roger Neal told Fox News, “This magazine has done some outlandish things over the years but this one is way over the top and could cost them readership and subscribers. I don’t think they expected this huge outcry. Somebody screwed up here plain and simple.”
That, however, is not the way the magazine’s editors see things. An official statement from Rolling Stone said, “The cover story we are publishing this week 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. The fact that Tsarnaev is young, and in the same age group as many of our readers, makes it all the more important for us to examine the complexities of this issue.”
In a considerably more sarcastic—not to mention crude—defense of the issue, senior editor Christian Hoard tweeted on Wednesday, “I guess we should have drawn a d**k on Dzhokhar’s face or something?” before quickly deleting that missive.
Not everyone, however, is as convinced that the Tsarnaev photo is in such poor taste. Slate contributor Mark Joseph Stern writes,
“As the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple points out, the image is exploitative—but it isn’t just exploitative: It’s also smart, unnerving journalism. By depicting a terrorist as sweet and handsome rather than ugly and terrifying, Rolling Stone has subverted our expectations and hinted at a larger truth. The cover presents a stark contrast with our usual image of terrorists. It asks, ‘What did we expect to see in Tsarnaev? What did we hope to see?’ The answer, most likely, is a monster, a brutish dolt with outward manifestations of evil. What we get instead, however, is the most alarming sight of all: a boy who looks like someone we might know. … Some psychopaths point guns at cameras; others snap selfies in T-shirts. As Tsarnaev’s many friends could attest, we aren’t as good as we’d like to believe at spotting the evil beneath the surface.”
From a coolly clinical intellectual perspective, I guess I understand that argument. But on the more visceral, reactive level, I can’t help but think that putting a “sweet and handsome” portrait of Tsarnaev on the cover of one of the world’s most famous magazines could also have unintended consequences, namely emboldening other similarly unstable, insecure, celebrity-hungry wannabe terrorists out there.
In his “Learning My Lines” blog, Christian youth culture expert Walt Mueller also offers several thoughtful levels of reflection about the cover:
We live in a self-obsessed and narcissism inducing/promoting/celebrating culture that’s fertile ground for social media use that’s not so much about serving others as it is about creating, curating, and marketing one’s self. … The fact that Rolling Stone chose a photo by Tsarnaev that was taken and posted to make himself look good, well, that’s a questionable decision but also a sign of our times. On another level, Tsarnaev has been given some control here. It’s as if Rolling Stone’s cover has become his own, personal Facebook page. There’s something eerie about that which I’m still trying to figure out and which just doesn’t sit well.
Mueller goes on to say,
“I wonder about the shift taking place in our culture regarding the blurred lines between fame, celebrity, and heroism. Morally, we’re all over the place. Relativism, tolerance, diversity, and pluralism run amuck have combined in a cocktail that allows each of us to individually decide not only what is virtuous and what is not, but who is virtuous and who is not. What gets us attention, magazine covers, and a following in today’s world is not so much quietly living your life in ways that good, true, right and honorable … but just making noise … even if that noise is horribly destructive. This isn’t going to change until we stop listening, looking, and paying attention.
I think Mueller is on to something here in his observation that this story represents more than just a brazen decision on the part of a famous magazine to stir up controversy and sales. Buried within the tangled threads of both Tsarnaev’s tragically violent tale and Rolling Stone’s choice to publicize it in this way are elements of narcissism, rebellion, celebrity, alienation, violence and radicalism—all served up in the context of one of the most popular entertainment magazines in the world.
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