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Updated 9.52pm
US MAGAZINE ROLLING Stone has put Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover of its latest issue.
The cover photograph is an image that 19-year-old Tsarnaev himself posted online before the attack on the Boston Marathon in April.
The text over the photograph reads: “The Bomber – How a popular, promising student was failed by his family, fell into radical Islam and became a monster.”
In a statement issued tonight, the magazine defended itself: “Our hearts go out to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, and our thoughts are always with them and their families.”
“The cover story … falls within the traditions of journalism and Rolling Stone’s long-standing commitment to serious and thoughtful coverage of the world’s most important political and cultural issues of the day,” it added.
The image was posted on the its Facebook page late on Tuesday night and has already attracted more than 5,000 comments – the majority of which disapprove of the decision to put Tsarnaev on the cover.
“I think it’s wrong to make celebrities out of these people,” says one comment by user Shawn Anthony. “Why give the guy the cover of Rolling Stone? TIME gave Charles Manson the cover and all the magazines carried pictures of the Columbine shooters on the covers, too. Don’t make martyrs out of these people.”
Another commenter called Adrienne Graham wrote: “Oh look, Rolling Stone magazine is glamourizing terrorism. Awesome. I will NOT be buying this issue, or any future issues.”
The magazine says the report by contributing editor Janet Reitman is a “deeply reported account of the life and time” of Tsarnaev, who is referred to as Jahar rather than Dzhokhar throughout the accompanying information about the article.
Rolling Stone said the feature article paints a picture of a “charming kid with a bright future” who was heavily influenced by his brother’s approach to Islam.
“Reitman spent the last two months interviewing dozens of sources- childhood and high school friends, teachers, neighbours and law enforcement agents, many of whom spoke for the first time about the case – to deliver a riveting and heartbreaking account of how a charming kid with a bright future became a monster,” the magazine said in a statement.
The article is not yet online, but the magazine’s statement says the piece covers how Tsarnaev “took his religion seriously” and had a troubled home life in the months leading up to the bombing.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to all charges in connection with the attacks in his first court appearance in Boston last week.
First published 9.50am
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This should prove to be one of the worst PR disasters of all time. There was a time when it was a huge honour to be on the front cover of Rolling Stone. Now they’ve lost it. I can’t see many celebrities wanting to be associated now.
It’s a disgraceful cover too. Are they trying to treat terrorists like rock stars?
Disgraceful is right, but its still shock advertising which has gotten huge exposure. Maybe not so bad PR work..
Wild guess you don’t read Rolling stone Billie – They’ve had Charles Manson and Mark David Chapman on the cover, both murderers – case in point; http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/rolling-stone/61-1.jpg Nor is it exclusive to RS: Time had columbine shooters on cover, and IIRC, USA Today featured the Dark Knight shooter. In defence of RS, they usually do the journalism incredibly well, and quite frankly I’m more interested in why a young man became so damn radicalised than what Lady GaGa’s latest schtick is. Rolling Stone is NOT just about music: it covers culture and politics fairly damn well too. And this issue is important, and legitimate public interest.
Well said.
He looks like a seventies rockstar.
He looks more like an a$$hole to me !!!!
If your talking about it well that’s all that matters
They had Obama on the cover, he’s killed way more people than this loser.
Larry Murphy for Hello Magazine
Comment of the month..
. Tip of the cap!
Thank you sir. My first ever comment on the journal. I’m not gona over do it now, just the odd classic line.
Jesus people would dislike anything on this . Not one negative word on my last comment and a dislike . Cheeeeeers
Laurence stop trolling
Well played people. Well played
Isn’t this giving these people exactly what they want? They want to be famous and at any cost. This just breeds more of these monsters.
Exactly
Being famous isn’t their goal, they’re more likely just idealists with horrendous ideals.
It’s part of it. They want to be remembered. To be martyrised. To go down in history as the sickest bastards that ever lived and to kill as many people as they can. The media give them nicknames and glorify it even more.
Kardia I see what you mean but if they didn’t before there will be people wanting to become famous after this. Putting the likes of these sickos on the rolling stone is completely glamorizing what they did. The young people reading it are so impressionable.This is just brainless.
So your point is that the guy was not famous until he was on the cover of RS?
No I meant that this encourages this type of behaviour and other people may follow. There’s a difference being in the news paper and being on the cover of the rolling stone.
Exactly! How many atrocious acts have been committed just because the perpetrator wanted to be noticed/famous eg mark chapman killing John Lennon. It’s a sick ploy by rolling stone mag to garner publicity and its done a good job. I think it’s wrong myself.
Ahem , 24 hr coverage on every news channel as this was unfolding .
Put bomber on the cover. Get people taking about it. Job done. Cover was a success.
Might work for this issue, but what about the test of them? Who will want to follow a terrorist onto next month’s cover?
*rest of them
Silly autocorrect.
it’ll all be forgotten by next month and it’ll be back to business as usual.
You are underestimating how terrorists are perceived in America.
This isn’t just a normal controversy. They’ve damaged a pretty good reputation here. At the very least they will not sell another copy in the New England area and that’s if they’re lucky.
And you’re totally over estimating the feelings towards terrorism. How many viewers has MTV lost in the long term after the TRL stunt the day after 9/11?
Sure there was some sort term damage but now it’s as though it never happened.
@see my vest. Very true. I’m sure that the marketing dept at Ryanair are kicking themselves that they didn’t come up with that one first!
Everybody in show business or politics, that’s who’d want to follow the terrorist on the cover.
Keep dreaming.
what’s that Trl stunt after 9/11? I tried googling it
Americans have very short memories, and faulty ones at that. Ask how many of the 9/11 crew were Saudis and see how many know
Really irresponsible from Rolling Stone. If I was a young jihadist in the making, seeing that and the thought of fame and notoriety would encourage me even more.
Would it yeh? Karl Waters, if that is your real name…
Cool comment bro.
Thanks very much :)
Very true Karl.
You’re right, this kind of front page spread will only influence other jihadists to become ‘martyrs’ .
What greater honor than to occupy the front page of one of the ‘infidels’ biggest selling magazines in a Jim Morrison style moody pose……..
The only reason the two lads hung around after beheading that poor guy in the uk recently was to become heroes to their cause on worldwide media, just like young Dzhokhar has just become.
I’ll still buy the mag but cant help but think it might just egg on some people who are on the edge of madness
@Ross: It’ll have a bigger impact than edging the ones already on the edge. In at least some way, It’ll influence every idealistic individual, even the previously peaceful ones.
It’ll also make jihadists the world over celebrate their cause, I’m sure a few couldn’t care less about western consumerist culture, but it’s still a victory in their book regardless.
cant argue with that.
Big victory indeed, more than likely he’ll have a bloody pr agent soon
Yep and it will appear from this that even America will glamourise and promote them, not just their own kind.
Hello?? Oprah calling !
This sickens me.it says that he was a charming kid with a bright future. Well so what. It was his choice to throw it away. Unlike the innocent victims. Im sure the 10 year old boy who was murdered was a charming kid with a bright future but it was ripped out from under him.
Yes and his little sister an Irish dancer 7 years old lost her leg and Dad was killed
Apologies his Dad wasn’t killed but the little girl is his sister
Bring on the usual conspiracy theorists “oh it was Obama” and spouting more BS….people are way to paranoid on here
Bring on the preemptive ‘bring on the…’ comment.
You’re talking about me? aren’t you? are you?
On topic though, That to me is a very stupid move by the mag
Bring on the comment about “bring on the preemptive comment” about bring on the comment.
Cornelius, could you drop me a mail via bobthrush99@hotmail.com re xmbc and navi x pls?
Wow a google link… Like I didn’t think of that!
Sent you 2 emails there fergal
The Bomber is brilliant, I prefer his early stuff, is he playing in Dublin? I couldn’t be bothered reading the article.
Didn’t he plead “Not guilty”… Rolling Stones implying guilt until proven.. That’s the disgraceful part… I wonder if that’s defamation of character, on a lighter note..
Never mind the legal jargon, you can be guaranteed he’ll be convicted – he’s facing 30 charges.
Independant Pizza in Drumcondra sticks up all the Rolling Stone covers around the Restaurant , wonder if they’ll stick this one up lol
The type of people who get offended by such wont be part of there readership anyway… This is the magazine that brought Hunter s Thompson to the masses…. will probably increase sales…
Found this on the website….. Fear and loathing in Las Vegas…. very funny
Below is an excerpt of an article that originally appeared in RS 95 from November 11, 1971. This issue and the rest of the Rolling Stone archives are available via Rolling Stone Plus, Rolling Stone’s premium subscription plan. If you are already a subscriber, you can click here to see the full story. Not a member? Click here to learn more about Rolling Stone Plus.
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive. …” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about 100 miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: “Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?”
Then it was quiet again. My attorney had taken his shirt off and was pouring beer on his chest, to facilitate the tanning process. “What the hell are you yelling about?” he muttered, staring up at the sun with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound Spanish sunglasses. “Never mind,” I said. “It’s your turn to drive.” I hit the brakes and aimed the Great Red Shark toward the shoulder of the highway. No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.
It was almost noon, and we still had more than 100 miles to go. They would be tough miles. Very soon, I knew, we would both be completely twisted. But there was no going back, and no time to rest. We would have to ride it out. Press registration for the fabulous Mint 400 was already underway, and we had to get there by four to claim our soundproof suite. A fashionable sporting magazine in New York had taken care of the reservations, along with this huge red Chevy convertible we’d just rented off a lot on the Sunset Strip … and I was, after all, a professional journalist; so I had an obligation to cover the story, for good or ill.
The sporting editors had also given me $300 in cash, most of which was already spent on extremely dangerous drugs. The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers … and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.
All this had been rounded up the night before, in a frenzy of high-speed driving all over Los Angeles County — from Topanga to Watts, we picked up everything we could get our hands on. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.
The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we’d get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station. We had sampled almost everything else, and now — yes, it was time for a long snort of ether. And then do the next 100 miles in a horrible, slobbering sort of spastic stupor. The only way to keep alert on ether is to do up a lot of amyls — not all at once, but steadily, just enough to maintain the focus at 90 miles an hour through Barstow.
“Man, this is the way to travel,” said my attorney. He leaned over to turn the volume up on the radio, humming along with the rhythm section and kind of moaning the words: “One toke over the line … Sweet Jesus … One toke over the line …”
To read the full article, you must be a subscriber to Rolling Stone Plus. Already a subscriber? Continue on to The Archives. Not a member and want to learn more? Go to our Rolling Stone Plus benefits page.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas-19711111#ixzz2ZIBKQXU8
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
Can’t see the problem. It’s a magazine that has to sell.
He is innocent until proven guilty. He’ll be found dead before too much time is out.
His uncle was a major character in the CIA. He was responsible for recruiting Islamic jihadists and using them to further US goals by causing instability where ever the US wanted it.
Slightly coincidental if you ask me.
Tin-foil hat alert!
Shite talk!
Please clarify the source of this.
‘Bout time Rolling Stone got it’s Mojo back. I think it’s a sign that as the music world has become so bland and uninteresting they’re going back to what they used to do so well.
Any common sensed person hopefully won’t touch this edition with a barge pole
Any person with a bit of common sense would probably read and engage with the article, you will find very few on the journal though
Sales will explode…. Kablammo
Jim Morrison called, he wants his haircut back.
Why glamorise someone like this…lets move on but not forget those effected. Sensationalist journalism to sell issues.
If we don’t understand the way they were thinking there’s no hope of stopping more like him
Even if you know how they think, you can’t stop them without total control.
Or with education. If someone can be radicalised it means that they are open to new ideas, possibly too open and to the wrong ideas, but open nonetheless. An argument is never won with a gun, only ended, and perhaps if we can understand why these people were so opposed to the society in which they had been reared and lived then efforts can be made to illustrate the errors of their thinking to their potential proteges.
Great PR stunt. Edgy Rock magazine !!! shock horror. About time
The whole case stinks….what about the shooting dead of the tsaraov’s mate while unarmed in a Fbi integration room and the subsequent cover up of all information relating to it.
I also wonder was Michael Hastings working on this story until his very suspicious death recently and who sent the suspect on the path leading up to the bombing considering the Fbi’s contact with him thru the years and their well know entrapment cases over the last few years.
Derek, that’s a lie!
Ah jaysus don’t tell me you’re one of these ‘false flag’ people
Big freaking deal! He is famous by the way for what he allegedly done! PC gone mad again! It’s not as if he was on the front page of the farmers journal.
It’s about time people learned the difference between celebrity and notoriety. This celebrity-obsessed culture we live in seems to to fall at the feet of anyone who’s image is widely known and available, entirely unable to distinguish between those we should celebrate and those we should despise.
Besides, terrorism is a symptom of an illness in our society, not the illness itself. It arises out of unjust oppression, religious fundamentalism (yes that is an illness!) and any of a number of circumstances which cause a person or social group to be misunderstood whilst also silencing their voice and taking away any power they may have to change the situation. A sort of ‘cornered rat’ syndrome and all the more dangerous for that. If there is something that we are allowing our society to do which provides a breeding ground for terrorism, I want to know about it, I want to be able to read about it it, be informed about it and I thank the Rolling Stone for giving that opportunity. Rock on RS!
I wonder if it will go into detail on the uncles ties to a notoriously corrupt leading CIA agent in the Chechen region Graham Fuller, perhaps it should have done an article on how one of its best investigative reporters Michael Hastings died very suspiciously in what’s being called a car crash.
There is just one thing that could possibly be considered as good from this… If we happened to see him on the street we would remember who he is!! But I think that this is disgraceful, he is being rewarded with fame now for the awful crime he committed :(
So you equate appearing on the front of a magazine with being a reward…oh you fame monster you
”he is being rewarded with fame now for the awful crime he committed ”
Obama has been rewarded with even more fame for many war crimes that he does not even deny–
[ or at least in his twisted world - he and his fellow criminals do not class them as war crimes ]–
– at least the suspect will get a Trial [ of sorts ] but judging by many comments here – such a process is a waste of time .
I never said that reward was a good thing and if you read it again you will see that I’m am saying that it is a terrible way for him to get fame!
“He is being rewarded with fame”? We’d best turn the news off then, so we don’t reward all the offenders with their 5 minutes of reward. In fact let’s bury our heads in the sand and make sure no-one benefits from us knowing anything about them.
Whatever suits yourself so :D
Even got a nobel peace prize to top it off. Alfred Nobel must be turning in his grave.
Notice there’s a story on Willie..Put Willie Nelson on the cover instead..a true American Legend who has spent the last 80 years spreading happiness throughout the world with his music. A story inside on this guy perhaps but not a cover..it implies he’s a celebrity. People’s lives have been destroyed by him. Rolling Stone..Fail
Why red thumbs? Better to have an evil terrorist than a successful American musician? ..confused
In a war on extremists the first hurdle is preventing the situations where young men and women are seduced into a branch of radicalised religion, I think that as a popular culture magazine they are entitled to tackle the issue of a current cultural debate in society.
The article aims to show how this transformation occurs, understanding why can prevent us asking why after the event, and even preventing the event from ever happening
Absolutely disgusting. I don’t think they care though. People will still buy it.
It’s a shame he actually didn’t do it……
You must be Dzhokhing!
I’m stealing that. Kudos.
I never thought much about RS before and thought it was only music. I’m keen to buy a copy now not just for this article but for what else is inside. Plus, to the critics, is Sky news and all the other tv rag news shows doing the EXACT same thing?
If they were so intent on using his picture why didn’t they use one of him in an orange jump suit, Handcuffs and Leg chains.
Purely bad and distasteful
Amazing all the barely contained sympathy for this sociopath. If he wasn’t “attractive”, he wouldn’t have any female supporters or people making excuses for him.
Women…
Ted Bundy had sex with dead bodies and stupid women were still fawning over him.
That’s a very broad statement. I take your point but I don’t think it’s fair to say that women only feel more sympathetic towards good-looking people. It’s a universal thing – http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016363839890011X . Do I sense bitterness?
I think it’s sad that Ted Bundy murdered hundreds of women because they only seen a “pretty” face.
America loves a Hollywood story! Sure throw the Michael stone on the front cover too!!! Clowns.
What a load of nonsense. It is an article about someone who’s face has been plastered over all kinds of media because of his actions. What’s wrong with another article about that person and his actions? The news is still current, the article is presumably valid… Honestly…
As an FB “colleague” of mine wrote:
“As i wrote on my FB “Maybe i’m a little different in my thinking. The Rolling Stone cover of the Boston Bomber puts a face to the horrible event. The picture used has been used before in the newspapers. It puts a reminder that horrible things can be done by good looking people who on the outside doesn’t fit a stereotype we have been conditioned to.”"
Ted Bundy – Attractive
Charles Manson – Attractive
Richard Ramirez – Attractive
Jeffrey Dahmer – Attractive
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – Attractive
Paul Bernardo – Attractive
Rodney Alcala – Attractive
Most serial killers probably veer towards good looking. Don’t know where this myth that they are supposed to be hideous monsters came from. It’s irrelevant and beside the point anyway. We should stop giving them the attention and immortality that they crave.
Do you spend your time rating serial killers looks on a scale of 1 to 10? Somebody has too much time on their hands.
:(
Somehow I doubt that he is rubbing his hands together in glee that he has made the front cover of rolling stone, I suspect he may have other things on his mind.. As to their use of his image, its what they do, engage with thorny issues and in all fairness their journalism is good. They are not glamorizing terrorism and he is not a celebrity. If people see it that way, it is their vision hardly RS..
How many times have we all been down this road? The controversial photograph–the “banning” of publications, the condemnation of editorial decisions? It is so tiring. Every time it only serves to boost the sales of the banned publication.
I think what is at work here is a conflict. We want to see terrorists as “monsters” without a human face. What the article is attempting to do is explain the seeds of “terrorism” and show you how an apparently “normal” teenager becomes a “terrorist”. Not what the authorities want, is it? They’re happier with the two dimensional comic-book bomb-throwing “terrorist”. Where’s his stubbly beard? Where’s his snarling mouth? His headband with undecipherable arabic script? Doesn’t fit the mold, does he?
And that, I think is why they chose that picture.
spot on
Rolling stone can go suck it! As we say in NYC!
Why not put one of his victims on the cover?
Gonzo, sensationalist journalism that will surely mark the beginning of the end of this magazine’s popularity..
Isn’t this the type of journalism that made RS notable in the first place?
Absolutely wrong-definitely portrays him as celebrity, bad move
One of my all time favourite movies!!
Although Rolling Stones has used Marilyn Manson on the front cover in the past, (with no such controversy) I think it’s ,this particular picture they used, that is offensive…. There are plenty they could have chosen…He looks like a rock star, which on the cover of this particular magazine gives the wrong message
Who determines what is the “right message” and the “wrong message”. You?
What is “the right message”?
I’m an Irish person living in Cambridge Massachusetts , I was a few blocks away from the bombing… What kind of 13 year old bulshite rhetorical question is that… Would a majorities thinking, determine the right message ?
Just going to say this straight out…seeing his face on the cover of Rolling Stone is not making me want to go out and bomb anything nor does it create all these radical ideas in my head, Oh and everyone who is saying he is ‘famous’ he is not there is a word for his kind and it is ‘INFAMOUS!!!!
He’s handsome as. What magazine does not exist to sell itself? The ‘journalist story’ is on the cover. If truth be told, if you could evacuate the entire nation (therefore diluting them), wouldn’t you remove the country?
Ah here!
Barack Obama’s admin murdered Michael Hastings a journalist for Rolling Stone last month in a set up car crash and then cremated his body against family wishes. Rolling Stone was correct to expose the fake false flag of Boston Bombing. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is an innocent patsy abused by Obama’s dirty lies.
Another Q popped to mind: neither plaintiff nor his girlfriend are citizens of the republic according to RTE news last night, they are bound by the constitution of their respective countries but by the law of country of residence. How then our constitution can be applied in this particular case? Attorney General was right to apply caution in proceedings. It’s a mind-bender.
LOL – it was for another thread…
have your say