The Glamorized Terrorist

A controversial image was selected for rhetorical analysis based on ethos, pathos, and logos. The Rolling Stone magazine cover of Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, was selected due to the outrage it caused among the magazine’s readers.

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Since 1967, Rolling Stone magazine has covered topics such as music, politics, and popular culture. Prominent musicians, actors, and politicians such as John Lennon, Barack Obama, and Meryl Streep have graced the covers. Despite these covers, Rolling Stone is no stranger to controversy. With former president Donald Trump, Britney Spears, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono being only some of the controversial covers, the most outrage the magazine has experienced from its readers was the cover of the Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The outrage was not so much of who was depicted on this cover, but how he was depicted: like a rock star.

            Before the Rolling Stone magazine August 2013 issue was released, the cover had already sparked outrage since the image was released online before the physical magazine issue was displayed in store. As a cashier at the time at a convenience store, we were required to still sell the issue. The Rolling Stone cover of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been compared to the cover of the late 1960s rock musician and lead singer of The Doors, Jim Morrison. The outrage resulted in “The case against the choice of photo stresses that it glorifies the accused terrorist and is insensitive to the victims of the bombings” (Wemple). The Rolling Stone cover of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev also consisted of cover lines of famous singers such as Willie Nelson, Jay-Z, and Robin Thicke. Despite their coverage of various musicians over the years, Rolling Stone chose an image of the Boston Marathon bomber to dominate the cover with the text “The Bomber” as the main cover line in heavy bold text. They included a subtext in black, slightly smaller bold text: How a Popular, Promising Student Was Failed by His Family, Fell Into Radical Islam and Became a Monster. The magazine failed to emphasize with its cover that he was an actual murderer responsible for a terrorist act. The tone of the picture is certainly dramatic and could be mistaken as a depiction of a musician. “The offending cover shot, denounced by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and thousands of angry Americans, some of whom have pledged to cancel their subscriptions, shows a cool and reclined Tsarnaev, his tousled hair and brown eyes bathed in warm light” (Teitel). Tsarnaev was displayed with tousled hair and a smoldering, serious expression, much like Jim Morrison’s Rolling Stone cover.

            The cover itself was the cause of the outrage, and not so much of the article that was written by Janet Reitman. The cover gave the public the impression that Rolling Stone magazine was glamorizing a murderer, especially with its dramatic lighting and emphasis of “The Bomber” printed in black, bold letters. In both the article and the cover, the magazine included bold subtext that seems to show some sort of compassion for the bomber. In the article, the introduction or kicker, begins with “He was a charming kid with a bright future. But no one saw the pain he was hiding or the monster he would become” (Reitman). Glancing back decades earlier, this is not the first time Rolling Stone magazine has glorified a murderer. In 1970, they chose American murderer and cult leader, Charles Manson, to grace their cover. The cover included Manson in a yellow, and grey tone. The cover did somewhat make Manson look like a glamorized murderer. However, the darker undertone of the cover made his facial expression still look menacing. Ultimately, the public saw, “Manson was a murderer and a kind of twisted celebrity, and in that way a forerunner to the modern terrorist” (Crouch). The main cover line indicated in large, black, bold letters “The incredible story of the most dangerous man alive.” The word ‘incredible’ is not a word I would describe Manson’s life before or after the murders. I would have chosen ‘unsettling’ to replace ‘incredible.’

The outrage that sparked from the Rolling Stone cover was certainly justified. However, Rolling Stone magazine was not persuaded by the outrage to completely pull the issue. It showed how unethical and insensitive it was for the victims and their families of the Boston Marathon bombing to showcase their killer as a doe-eyed rock star. The editors from Rolling Stone magazine tried to justify the cover, “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 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 Dzhokhar 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 and gain a more complete understanding of how a tragedy like this happens” (Reitman). Both the public and the editors from the magazine used emotional appeals to argue their reasoning with Rolling Stone not making enough of a plausible claim. One plausible claim did not come from Rolling Stone magazine, but The New Yorker, “The victims of the Boston Marathon bombing deserve our attention and will continue to teach us about perseverance and the best parts of our common nature. But the dark stories of the bombing need to be told, too. And we need to hear them” (Crouch).

Did Rolling Stone know ahead of time the outrage the magazine cover was going to cause? If so, why still release the issue? The victims of the Boston Marathon bombing might as well have been slapped in the face by Rolling Stone magazine. Late American journalist Hunter S. Thompson said, “Politics is the art of controlling your environment.” Instead of highlighting the victims, it seemed the magazine was trying to control or change the public’s perception of the Boston Marathon bomber. It felt like an invitation to look deeper into his background story to understand what led him and his brother, Tamerlan Dzhokhar to commit such a heinous crime.

Sources

Crouch, Ian. The Inconvenient Image of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. 17 July 2013. 27 January 2022.

Reitman, Janet. “Jahar’s World.” Rolling Stone 17 July 2013.

Teitel, Emma. “Evil Can’t Be Explained in a Cover Line.” Macleans August 2013: 14. EBSCOhost.

Wemple, Erik. “Rolling Stone stands by controversial cover.” The Washington Post (2013).