RollingStone crossed the line imo

[El Kabong]

What they should have done given a certain cities relevance to music historically as well as being the backbone of the NA car industry given its present state of affairs was a cover featuring Detroit.

I'm thinking they didn't do that because an intellectually honest article on why Detroit went bankrupt would put Rolling Stone's writers, readers, etc own political views in the crosshairs and show why the policies they love are not the greatest. Detroit is a friggin sad story, it's tragic...it went from being a thriving city with the highest per capita income in the United States in 1961 to an absolute rundown shithole in a matter of 20 years and bankrupt shithole in 40 years!


The issue with the picture is that Rolling Stone intentionally chose a picture that made Dzokhar look like the lead singer of some 90's grunge band. Its a picture made to make Dzokhar look like a victim....he wasn't he made a conscious decision to do what he did and he can't suffer enough for it. I think perhaps a side-by-side of "Teen heart throb Dzokhar" and "Battered and Bloodied Terrorist Dzokhar" could have sent the message of "How did he get from being this kid to being this monster?" a little better.

[Beanz]

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[Howlin Mad Missy]

did people notice the political tag lines on the cover or just look at the shiny pictures? The Stones haven't done anything worth writing about for 40+ years, except not die

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[Beanz]

did people notice the political tag lines on the cover or just look at the shiny pictures? The Stones haven't done anything worth writing about for 40+ years, except not die

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" No we only looked at the pictures because we are dumb and shallow " is that what you want us to say? The OP IamInuit said in his first post that he had no problem with the article itself? Have you actually read the article yet? It is a highly symbolic gesture to use such a flattering selfie shot on the cover of a magazine whose primary focus is the adulation of musical and other celebrities. It's not the New York Post, or the London Times, and never will be however much social comment it carries. The article itself refers to his appearance as though that is of any relevance whatsoever, and worst of all tries to shift the blame from the individual onto his family, which is alluded to in the tagline "How a popular, promising student was failed by his family.."

He wasn't particularly popular or promising at all and your family leaving you as an adult to go back to Russia is hardly failing you. It had it's moments of clarity, the allusion to his wanting to connect with his roots and his "jihadification"

"To me, this is classic diasporic reconstruction of identity: 'I'm a Chechen, and we're fighting for jihad, and what am I doing? Nothing.' It's not unlike the way some Irish-Americans used to link Ireland and the IRA – they'd never been to Northern Ireland in their lives, but you'd go to certain parts of Southie in Boston, and all you see are donation cans for the IRA."

That said it also had it s moments of immense and offensive stupidity

Theo, who goes to college in Vermont and is one of the few of Jahar's friends to not have any college loans, can't imagine the stress Jahar must have felt. "He had all of this stuff piled up on his shoulders, as well as college, which he's having to pay for himself. That's not easy. All of that just might make you say 'Fuck it' and give up and lose faith.
Wick Sloane, an education advocate and a local community-college professor, sees this as a widespread condition among many young immigrants who pass through his classrooms. "All of these kids are grateful to be in the United States. But it's the usual thing: Is this the land of opportunity or isn't it? When I look at what they've been through, and how they are screwed by federal policies from the moment they turn around, I don't understand why all of them aren't angrier. I'm actually kind of surprised it's taken so long for one of these kids to set off a bomb."

Symbols are everything, they are not just representative they are the whole thing. You Can carry a story about The Boston Bomber without pandering to his own, and the vanity of your readers, by putting such a soppy self shot on the cover. It's cynical and designed to create controversy and shift volume, the bottom line, make money, to pretend otherwise is the shallow option.