Community Corner

Is Rolling Stone's 'Bomber' Cover Offensive?

Placement of story on bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev causes public outrage.

By Katherine Hafner

Rolling Stone magazine has made many enemies among its national readership, with a controversial move to put Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on its Aug. 1 cover.

The cover, a space usually designated for bonafide rock stars, features a prominent head-and-shoulders picture of Tsarnaev, with the title “The Bomber: How a Popular, Promising Student Was Failed by His Family, Fell into Radical Islam, and Became a Monster.”

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The upcoming cover's preliminary release has angered people across the country, with social media campaigns like a “Boycott Rolling Stone Magazine for their latest cover” Facebook page and hashtag “#BoycottRollingStone” on Twitter gaining thousands of supporters.

The cover even prompted retailers such as CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, Rite Aid and Kmart to pull the magazine out of their stocks in response to customer complaints.

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“CVS/pharmacy has decided not to sell the current issue of Rolling Stone featuring a cover photo of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect,” the company posted on its Facebook page on Wednesday. “As a company with deep roots in New England and a strong presence in Boston, we believe this is the right decision out of respect for the victims of the attack and their loved ones.”

The magazine’s cover also sparked outrage from one Massachusetts State Police photographer, Sgt. Sean Murphy, who publicly released unauthorized photos of Tsarnaev from the night of his capture in Watertown, MA in April.

“I hope that the people who see these images will know that this was real. It was as real as it gets,” Murphy wrote on the magazine’s website, according to the Los Angeles Times. “This may have played out as a television show, but this was not a television show."

Authorities are now investigating Murphy for his action, though he has gained many social media supporters who say he's a hero for standing up to the magazine’s “glorifying of terrorism.”

Tell us in the comments section below:

• What do you think of Rolling Stone’s placement of the Tsarnaev story on its cover?

• Should people boycott Rolling Stone in response?


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