Rolling Stone Magazine Responds To Backlash Over Magazine Cover Featuring Bombing Suspect

July 17th, 2013

Kriston McConnell

If you missed it, which is highly doubtful at this point, Rolling Stone revealed the cover of their upcoming August issue and it features a rather rockstar-esque photo of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger of the two Boston bombing suspects. He looks more like a rock idol than he does a terrorist, or is that just me? I guess not, because both CVS and Walgreens announced earlier today that they will not sell this edition of the magazine in their stores. Because of those announcements, and many other stores announcing they will not sell this issue, Rolling Stone’s editors decided to make a statement defending the reasoning behind the action. You can read that statement by taking a look below the jump.

It’s only been a few months since the bombings took place; is it too soon for coverage like this to be made public with such a large, well known magazine? A music magazine no less. What are your thoughts on the matter? Let us know what you think.

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