海角大神

Rolling聽Stone鈥檚聽decision to feature聽Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on its Aug. 1 cover聽has kicked up a聽social media and real world dust storm.

Facebook and the Twittersphere are surging with commentary, most of which 鈥� though not all 鈥� condemns what many are calling a glamorous, introspectively poetic photo聽that gives celebrity-style聽treatment to a terrorism suspect.

Indeed, the image is lifted from Mr. Tsarnaev鈥檚 own聽social media page 鈥� and if Facebook had existed when Bob聽Dylan was a teen, this could easily have been his聽self-portrait.

In Boston, both Tedeschi Food shops and CVS have announced they will not sell the issue.

In the bottom right corner of the cover,聽the headline reads: 鈥淭he Bomber: How a Popular, Promising Student Was Failed by his Family, Fell Into Radical Islam and became a Monster.鈥�

If you flip to page 46,聽the story begins聽soberly enough: 鈥淗e was a charming kid with a聽bright future. But聽no one saw the pain he was hiding or the monster he would become.鈥�

The problem with the story, say the critics, is that聽what many consider the disastrous effects of romanticizing evil have already happened, long before anyone flips into the聽actual magazine piece.

A statement released by Rolling Stone Wednesday defended the story as 鈥渨ithin 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.鈥� However the statement did not directly address characterizations of Tsarnaev鈥檚 cover image.

Giving Tsarnaev rock-star status by featuring him on the cover is dangerous, says Los Angeles psychiatrist, Carole Lieberman, author of 鈥淐oping with Terrorism: Dreams Interrupted.鈥�

鈥淭his will provoke wannabe terrorists to聽commit similar acts, so that their picture will be on the cover, as well,鈥� she says.

Most important, Rolling Stone appeals to a counter-culture demographic, notes Dr. Lieberman,聽which includes 鈥減eople who think it's cool to topple authority figures and the status quo, a population that could聽well give birth to the next domestic terrorist.鈥�

The headline is actually more troubling than the photo, says Carolyn Kitch,聽a professor of journalism at Temple University in Philadelphia.聽It聽suggests a tragic fall, she says,聽a standard, recognizable聽storyline, 鈥渢he fall-from-grace story: How could it be that this promising young man was led astray?鈥�

Interestingly, she notes via e-mail, 鈥渢hat is also the plotline for the story of the young man who is on the cover of People magazine this week: Cory Monteith, the Glee star who died of a drug overdose.鈥� This is a typical narrative template for the dead-rock-star story, she says, but in the case of the Rolling Stone coverline, it narratively enfolds Tsarnaev himself within the tragedy.

But there are many, many examples of outrageous figures gracing the covers of magazines, from Adolf Hitler to Charles Manson, says journalism professor Mark Tatge, from DePauw University in Green Castle, Ind.

鈥淭he role of media is to inform and provide context for events. To the extent that this story gives us more information about this horrible tragedy, it is valuable,鈥� he says via e-mail, adding that hopefully stories like these will only improve our understanding of what went wrong here so future incidents like these can be avoided. 鈥淐hoking off or censoring stories like these is not the solution to the problem, nor does it help us move forward as a society,鈥� Professor Tatge adds.

Doug Spero, professor of mass communication at Meredith College, in聽Raleigh, N.C., agrees that this is nothing new.

鈥淚 am a guy of journalistic ethics, and from what I am reading here, this looks like solid journalism,鈥� he says via e-mail. People want to know what was in the mind of a Lee Harvey Oswald, he says, adding聽that there is a place for something like this 鈥渁s long as it doesn鈥檛 become tabloid journalism.鈥�

This is the kind of stuff that books are written about, adds Professor Spero, why not a magazine?

But comparisons to magazine covers featuring such聽historical evil-doers as Osama bin Laden聽miss the mark, suggests Brian Heffron, a former journalist and now Boston public relations professional.

鈥淭his feels very different than, say, a cover story of bin Laden in Time,鈥� he says, adding that聽whether it is the style of the photo or the simple fact that it's on Rolling Stone, 鈥渋t seems to glorify this alleged terrorist. The magazine seems to be romanticizing him as a James Dean rebel and not profiling a mass murderer.鈥�

Let's face it, says Mr. Heffron, 鈥渢he聽editors knew full well the controversy will grab attention鈥� from its target demographic.

The magazine鈥檚 statement Wednesday addressed that point. 鈥淭he 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."

The question, continues Heffron,聽will be, is the vitriol balanced by interest in buying the issue for the story?

The answer to that question is simple for psychiatrist Lieberman. It matters little what聽has been written about Tsarnaev within the magazine, she says,聽since many will just see the cover聽鈥渁nd it will set their minds spinning, trying to figure out how they can become an immortalized 'hero'聽like Tsarnaev.鈥�