Keenan Coffey

9/17/13

Journalism F

Jahar's World essay

Terrorism within the United States borders have scared a broad amount of people for a long time. In particular the Boston Marathon bombing caused mass hysteria, and brought fear to one of America's most beloved cities. The Rolling Stone article Jahar's World by Janet Reitman illustrates Jahar's life, and the "monster" that he became. The jaw-dropping cover and article of the magazine portraying Dzhokar Tsarnaev as innocent was a tremendous controversial issue that angered a wide variety of people.

The cover of the Rolling Stone magazine showed Jahar taking a "selfie" with multiple captions directly below. These captions said "How a popular, promising student was failed by his family, fell into radical islam, and became a monster." I believe this provides a list of excuses on Dzhokar's behalf. Instead of the cover saying failed by his family, it should say he failed himself. Only the most psychologically disturbed people would go through with an act of terrorism in this proportion. It was brought all upon himself once he agreed with his older brother Tamerlan to join radical islam in the first place. The cover depicts Jahar as an innocent college student that had a rough life, and was destined to fail. I disagree with both the choice of the cover, and the captions describing Tsarnaev. In the article itself, Reitman stated, "soulful brown eyes and the kind of shy, laid-back manner that 'made him that dude you could always just vibe with' one friend says." The way Reitman described Dzhokar in a positive manner caused a lot of people to feel anger towards the magazine. They believed he should not have been given any credit because he is such a poor human being.

In the response to the article, New York Times journalist David Carr wrote an article about the reactions of very involved people in the investigation. Sgt. Sean Murphy took many pictures of Jahar when he was in a very bad state before he was ultimately captured. Carr wrote, "The images taken by Sgt. Sean Murphy, a photographer with the Massachusetts State Police who was described as 'furious' about the Rolling Stone cover and accused the magazine of 'glamorizing the face of terror.'" Murphy saw first hand the destruction caused by Tsarnaev, and doesn't support the cover and article whatsoever. Many stores and important people refused to buy or sell the magazine for many reasons. Mayor of Boston Thomas Menino apposed the magazine, along with other retailers. Carr stated, "Mayor Thomas Menino wrote a letter of protest to Rolling Stone and several retailers with Boston ties said they would not sell the controversial issue." The contents of the magazine angered Bostonian retailers and the mayor which is very understandable. Apposing the cover and article was popular amongst the people of Boston as one could tell. Carmen Rasmusen also wrote an article regarding the Rolling Stone magazine. She felt very strongly on the issue of the story getting published. She thought it was a terrible idea and was not approriate for Rolling Stone. Rasmusen said, "What's even more baffling is how this story got approved." Rasmusen, along with many others, were shocked as to how the story was published considering the word choice and description of Jahar.

Rolling Stone portrayed Dzhokar Tsarnaev as the opposite of who he really was. They said he was "just a normal American kid", which is extremely hard to believe regarding the actions taken by him and his brother on 4/15/13. Many people found the magazine offensive and innapropriate. Getting on the cover Rolling Stone is usually a milestone for a lot of celebrities, and an honor. In this instance, it shows an infamous bomber that had a lot of nerve to do what he did. Therefore, the article published by Rolling Stone angered a lot of people and was the centerpoint of a lot of controversy.