'Rolling Stone' Tsarnaev cover stirs firestorm- Page 4

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/18/13 at 6:26pm

I don't think the media coverage gives them a reason to do it. It just puts them on a big "glamorous" podium.

These killings are a (demented) form of communication. The killers are trying to make a point.

The media gives them a platform and microphone to be heard, not the point for the killing.

They aren't motivators, they are enablers. Facilitators.

If I (as a mass killer) want my voice heard and I see that someone before me just landed on the cover of Rolling Stone, I decide it's worth it to do what's in my mind. Because my voice WILL be heard by the people who admire rock stars and fame. The very group I want to reach.

To me, it's chilling when I see a cover like this.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/18/13 at 6:41pm

I will add that whatever that "point" is they are trying to make is the real mystery. There is no "one answer fits all" point to mass murders. It's many points, many demented points. Some with no logic at all.

The media makes it their job to probe into the "why." Into the heads of insane people.

These younger men are (usually) quiet killers who may or may not blog about their feelings, may or may not talk to or with anyone, but they have so much built up anger and rage that it overpowers them. I think it could be any number of reasons that they feel the way they do. But when they get to the point where they're going to start shooting in a blaze of glory (and that "glory" keeps growing bigger and bigger today), they can take comfort in knowing the media will see to it they are heard, long after they are gone.

There will be no "tree falling in the woods where no one hears it." No "shot in the dark."

It will be cover-boy status on Rolling Stone. Head shots on every TV station in America. Their names and faces will be known and remembered.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 7/18/13 at 6:47pm

"The media makes it their job to probe into the "why." Into the heads of insane people."

Yes, while profiting off that probe by sensationalizing the tragedy and glamorizing the suspect(s).

RS might have published a compelling story about the bomber, but they also made the decision to make him their cover picture. Just to boost their sales. That turns readers off and now I will never read the story, regardless of how well-written or important it might be. Too bad.

Updated On: 7/18/13 at 06:47 PM

[Jane2]

Posted: 7/18/13 at 6:50pm

I'm also not enamored of RS's subtle reference to Jim Morrison.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/18/13 at 7:06pm

Let's face it, the magazine industry as we know it is dying.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. They're just baking people into meat pies now to save the store.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 7/18/13 at 9:25pm

Best12, like Finding Namo, I'm having difficulty following your argument. I assume you aren't suggesting that the media ignore major catastrophic events perpetrated by people. But I am not quite sure what you are suggesting; that the media cover them but not bother to look into the people who caused them, their backstories and motivations, how they came to commit their acts? Or is your complaint here specific to Rolling Stone and this particular treatment? Would you object to a documentary about Tsarnaev? Do you object to the Columbine murderers having appeared on the cover of Time? Did you have problems that people like Charlie Manson were the subjects of public and media fascination? Do you have an objection to documentaries and features about the the Manson Family and the Columbine killers? Are you drawing a distinction between world leaders who are war criminals, perpetrators of mass murder and torture making the cover of magazines and people who were neither famous nor infamous before their crimes? Are you drawing a distinction between political terrorism, other mass murderers and political terrorists who hold elected (or otherwise acquired) political office, and, if so, what's behind these distinction?s

Sorry to sound like I'm giving you the third degree; I'm sincerely interested in understanding your views on this.





Updated On: 7/19/13 at 09:25 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/18/13 at 10:38pm

Just biked over the Marathon finish line and there are four TV trucks set up on the block. Please, universe, don't let this be about the Rolling Stone cover.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/18/13 at 11:50pm

personally i am hoping that this is just the first in a series of pieces on bombers. i can't wait to see eric rudolph's come hither cover.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 12:00am

Here ya go, Papa.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 12:03am

well, i think we coulda found a sexier pic of lee couldn't we?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 12:13am

Can I just say how long I have been waiting for you to get electricity in your cave? A long time. Welcome back.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 6:14am

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 10:18am

In an attempt to counter Rolling Stone's cover, a police officer released never-before-seen photos of Tsarnaev (and the manhunt) to the Boston Magazine. He wanted people to remember him this way - not the Rolling Stone way.

I commend him for doing what he did, even though he was suspended for his action and will face a committee in the coming weeks to determine future employment.


Boston Magazine Photos

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 11:33am

You commend him for it? Okay, I really *am* trying to see how the Rolling Stone picture is going to inspire terrorists but the picture of the bleeding "warrior brother of a martyr" is not?

Boston Magazine always wants to generate traffic to its website, Rolling Stone wants people to buy the magazine at the few existing newsstands that still carry it. Why is the one commendable and the other an outrage?

PS I had no idea the man who killed Kennedy was a teabagger.

Updated On: 7/19/13 at 11:33 AM

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 11:42am

You're grouping the magazine with the photographer. I said I "commend him," meaning the police officer who has risked his employment for releasing the photos. His intentions were well meaning and heart in the right place, unlike those at RS who were simply looking to stir the pot.

I am not commending the Boston Magazine for trying to generate traffic. They are a for-profit business. I would expect nothing less. That being said, Boston Magazine has devoted countless time, resources, and coverage to honoring the victims since the bombing. Rolling Stone has not. I'm going to cut Boston Magazine a little slack here and if you deem that as hypocritical, so be it.

This is not a black and white issue. We will all use our individual experiences in our personal life to shape our perspective on the matter. Those who knew the victims in the bombing or have some deeper connection to the tragedy are going to feel differently than those who do not. I have a tie to one of those severely injured in the bombing.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 11:52am

Liza's Headband, I'm so sorry to hear that, I hope he or she is on the way to as full a recovery as possible.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 11:58am

I'm not going to list ties to the bombing or people who were injured that I have because it doesn't influence the way I am seeing this and it isn't having an impact on my difficulty to understand what people are saying.

"His intentions were well meaning and heart in the right place, unlike those at RS who were simply looking to stir the pot."

Given the text he wrote that accompanied the release of the pictures, it looks to me like he was very much interested in stirring the pot.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 11:58am

Thank you, Henrik. She partially lost her hearing and sight, due to the blast, but it only turned out to be temporary (we all thought it would be permanent). She is still recovering but will be alright. I cannot imagine the mental and emotional scarring she has, though.

ETA: Namo, from reading the Boards at the time I do recall that you had personal connections as well. My point was that I view this through a different prism. But I do respect you and enjoy your posts, so we'll just agree to disagree.
Updated On: 7/19/13 at 11:58 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 12:18pm

I just hope everyone can steel themselves now for when Time inevitably includes the Tsarnev brothers in the fake list of people they always put up as potential People of The Year so that outrage will foment and everybody will go and vote for Sean Collier.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 12:24pm

Very glad to hear that, Liza's. It is indeed unimaginable and I hope she is getting a great deal of help and support.

[Kad]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 12:36pm

I find the release of those photos more disturbing and distasteful than the Rolling Stone cover. That's what that officer felt could counter the allegedly glamorizing cover? Showing a bloody, battered, disoriented young man who was part of a terrorist plot surrendering with a sniper's laser target on his forehead? I'm fairly unsympathetic toward Tsarnaev, and even I felt a twinge of empathy for him upon seeing those photos.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 12:46pm

^ I second that

Except for perhaps the empathy part, but definitely the thought that this is more disturbing and distasteful. The people at Rolling Stones have a business agenda: selling magazines and being talked about. I don't like this action, but I understand it in light of that business angle.The response, especially coming from a police sergeant, feels wrong. Updated On: 7/19/13 at 12:46 PM

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 12:48pm

Out of context, I might too. But when you consider that he sustained those injuries in a gun fight with cops immediately following the execution an innocent MIT police officer... Then again, maybe not. I just cannot relate but I do try. It's difficult.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 12:50pm

And I say this as pretty much a first amendment absolutist but... if we are going to have to anticipate the unintended consequences of every publication, wouldn't these new photos serve as better lone wolf terrorist recruitment photos than the Rolling Stone cover?

[Kad]

Posted: 7/19/13 at 1:01pm

When I look at those photos, I see some desperate kid who somehow went down, or was led, down an unfathomably terrible path, who looks like he has realized all-too-late the gravity of his inhuman deeds. They're much, MUCH more humanizing than his blank-faced self-portrait.

People are too willing to reduce public figures to heroes or monsters.