Pages Menu
TwitterRssFacebook
Categories Menu

Posted by on Jul 22, 2013 in Andrew Rose, Featured, Music, Pop Culture | 0 comments

A Dzhokhar, A Smoker, A Midnight Toker

rolling-stone-the-bomber-ftr

 

The initial outrage has passed but the fury continues to smolder over Rolling Stone’s latest cover choice, one that placed the image of an incarcerated terrorist in a spot normally reserved for scantily-clad pop starlets and guitar heroes. The backlash was instantaneous, occurring primarily in obscenity-laden vitriol posted by users on the magazine’s website and Facebook page, but also drawing substantial attention from advertisers, politicians, and retailers vowing not to sell the issue. Shortly thereafter, the backlash to the backlash began trickling in as well, with defenses ranging from the upholding of journalistic principles to the expression of first amendment rights, doing little else but fanning the flames and ensuring the bickering continues.

There’s a few seconds in the song N—– In Paris where the artists sample a line from Blades of Glory: “But it’s provocative – it gets the people going!” That by no means can suffice as a defense for the cover photo, but I certainly believe it serves as an explanation. Attention grabbing headlines, controversial feature stories, scandalous covers – if anything, these are desirable traits for a magazine such as Rolling Stone, not to mention the news industry at large. These things get the people going, and Rolling Stone is no stranger to the pros and cons that come with that territory. This is the same periodical that once put Charles Manson on its cover and also received a considerable amount of grief in regards to a teenaged Britney Spears snuggling with the purple Teletubby. Sure, they may lose a few customers. But they’ve been through this before. This was a calculated move. And guess what? Here we are, talking about their cover story. They know how the game works, as does a multitude of other magazines across a variety of topics and a number of years. The New Yorker’s depiction of the Obamas as jihadists; Esquire’s Christ-like Muhammad Ali cover; Time’s selection of Adolf Hitler as its Man of the Year. Perhaps the most surprising thing about all this is that it is somehow still surprising.

A lot of the criticism has focused on the perception that Rolling Stone designed its cover  specifically to make Dzhokhar look like a rock star. Shaggy haired, disinterested yet intense, with the iconic heading scrolling across his visage, it isn’t exactly a stretch to think this image came from a photo shoot. But that’s the thing – it obviously didn’t. This picture, taken by the subject himself, had appeared in other news outlets prior to gracing the magazine’s cover. Perhaps what we’re really outraged about is that he actuallydoes fit the rock star profile; he resembles something we’ve seen before, something we’ve put on a pedestal. Before this April, Dzhokhar was an embodiment of the American Dream – removed from a war-torn region, assimilated into his new culture, and largely successful in all his endeavors and personal relationships. He was a naturalized US citizen in a major metropolitan hub, an immigrant who had effectively used the opportunities presented before him. And then…he wasn’t.

Timothy McVeigh was a psychopath. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were either narcissists or victims of bullying, depending on who you believe. The younger of the Tsarnaev brothers was…impressionable? Misguided? These aren’t the descriptors of a monster; they’re adjectives we use for a teenager in detention. There isn’t yet a true motive, or a degree of separation; for all intents and purposes, he was one of us. That may be the hardest part to cope with. He was, ostensibly, just a normal dude. And his picture, plastered on newsstands across the country, is a sad reminder of that revelation. ‘Haunting’ may be the best word to describe the image, and that characterization is two-fold: the photograph itself is a portrait of an anonymous young man who will one day commit an act of unspeakable evil, and it simultaneously serves to quite literally ‘haunt’ a city and country that struggle to overcome the events of Marathon Monday.

The other most common critique of the cover decision I’ve seen revolves around the “too soon” argument. At face value, it seems pretty legitimate; only three months have passed since that fateful day, and the wounds are [literally] still fresh. But consider this: is there really a point where the image of a mass murderer or a moment of national tragedy becomes far enough away from the initial event that it suddenly is deemed acceptable? Does a photo of the World Trade Center towers engulfed in flames carry any less weight on the bereaved now that we’re twelve years out? The answer, of course, is no. Dzhokhar’s selfie won’t be any less offensive a year from now. Either it’s appropriate or it isn’t. Time will do little to change this perception.

What Rolling Stone tried to do was analyze the transition of a seemingly-normal individual into a killer, the kind of piece their writers have written and published on countless other occasions. Instead, the front of the magazine served as a distraction to the actual content of the article, taking away from the research and interviews meant to shed some light on this individual. Had Gary Clark Jr. been on the cover in Dzhokhar’s place, we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all. The most disappointing part in all of this, however, is after several thousand words, the article does little to explain just how its subject “became a monster”. We learn of Tsarnaev’s marijuana habits, meet the type of people he hung out with, and read the highlights of his Twitter handle, but at no point do we find the answer to the question of what went wrong. Perhaps at this juncture there isn’t one. But if you’re going to drum up controversy and stir up serious amounts of negative emotions and traumatic memories, you’d be best served if you had a reason to do so. A payoff, if you will. And frankly, I just don’t see it.

Comments

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: