“(Rolling Stone) Wanna see my picture on the cover
(Stone) Wanna buy five copies for my mother (I want one!)
(Stone) Wanna see my smilin’ face
On the cover of the Rolling Stone
On the cover of the Rolling Stone”
That’s right. Songs sing the praises of the cover, because once you’ve made the cover of that magazine, you KNOW you’ve made it. There is a bar in the entertainment industry, and Rolling Stone is it.
That is until today…
I’m a very soft-spoken member of RockRevolt. I usually don’t have a big opinion about anything, at least nothing to voice a big opinion about anyway. I’m a go-with-the-flow, don’t-make-waves kind of person. It’s hard to get a rise out of me. I don’t cry easy at movies, and I’ve been described by some folks as the biggest neutral party ever – not today though. After seeing Rolling Stone’s most recent cover, my heart sank for the entertainment industry as a whole and my heart wept for society.
Yes. I’m talking about the cover of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. 
I’m not going to get into a debate about him and what he did. I play devil’s advocate on that one every day. I was 17 once. My kid is 17. I work with 17 year olds. It’s a disgustingly impressionable and malleable time and age. It’s an atrocity when a child (because that is what they are) is either coerced, taught, pushed, brainwashed, or even willingly commits the acts that this child did. What happened in Boston was more than terrible. What is also appalling is how someone gets to a place mentally, that tells them that this act of terrorism and violence is an acceptable way of coping with any given issue. Everybody is a victim when it comes to the Boston Marathon Bombing, including that boy.
But he still did it*, and no amount of celebrity is going to alleviate that fact – for him, or the community that he helped devastate.
Putting him on the cover of the Rolling Stone turns him into a Rock Star. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover validates what he did. When a media outlet that sets the standard and bar for the industry, it’s a sad day and a horrible reflection of what that media outlet feels is appropriate to present to the masses. It’s inexcusable when it is one with as much clout as Rolling Stone. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover tells the story of “Bombing the Boston Marathon was Okay.”
Now, I am not saying I’m the face of decorum. I’ve written some pretty gross things. When it comes to Rolling Stone, I could barely stomach Justin Bieber being on the cover, but it made sense. He’s big enough, he’s in the entertainment industry, and sadly, kids look up to him. It makes sense for him to be there. He has a piece of entertainment real estate with his brand, and he does extremely well at managing it. He is the face of his brand and he is at the top of his game doing what he does.
The only thing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has in his resume is that he was an active catalyst of the Boston Marathon Bombing. There is no reason we should celebrate that. No reason whatsoever.
Perhaps they wanted to “put his story out there”. It doesn’t matter if they did or not. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could have written an autobiography. Hell, the Centennial Olympic Park Bomber Robert Rudolph is doing that, and we haven’t seen his face on the cover…yet. Many people won’t even read the contents of the Rolling Stone to even try to understand whatever his story is, because being on the cover of the Rolling Stone means that you are someone to look up to. You are a celebrity to be revered, and the things you have done merit some sort of praise.
The message that it sends is so far from acceptable from a human perspective, that it actually makes me physically ill. I can only hope that whoever sells and distributes Rolling Stone thinks twice about carrying the magazine or hosting it on a newsstand, because when they do, they are supporting the message that “this is okay. The Boston Marathon Bombing is okay”.
It’s not okay. What that boy did is NOT okay. It will NEVER be okay. For Rolling Stone to say that it is, even if inside its filthy pages it says it’s not, that coveted cover says that it is.
I get it. Rolling Stone wants to sell a product, but when their product is pushing the message that being a domestic terrorist is acceptable, they’ve truly taken their need for notoriety and greed to a new level of immorality, and they are using their influence to push and direct ethical boundaries.
I say this with all sincerity. Fuck you Rolling Stone for what you did and for the ripples that your status and power are going to create. I hope whatever gains you receive and will receive are worth the damage you’ve done, because the wheels you are setting in motion, are taking us down a road we NEVER should go.
Alice Roques
Managing Editor and Co-Founder of RockRevolt Magazine
The views of the editor do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the entire staff of RockRevolt Magazine
*(allegedly) – Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has yet to be convicted.
