Blaze Poll: Is Rolling Stone Magazine Making the Accused Boston Marathon Bomber a Rock Star and Martyr?

Rolling Stone Magazine's new issue features an unusual cover boy. The image is that of Boston Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev. (For the record, Rolling Stone did not set up a high-priced fashion photo shoot for the cover image, they took that shot from a Facebook post by the accused bomber.)

Image: Rolling Stone Magazine

The magazine calls Tsarnaev a "popular, promising student" and claims that he was "failed by his family" and "fell into radical Islam and become a monster."

Rolling Stone reports that contributing editor Janet Reitman's story, titled "Jahar's World", is the culmination of two months of work interviewing dozens of sources – "childhood and high school friends, teachers, neighbors and law enforcement agents."

Almost immediately after hitting newsstands, mailboxes and Rolling Stone's online portal, questions and comments were raised -- asking if Rolling Stone was making the a rock star and martyr out of the man charged with 30 criminal counts (including terrorism, murder and making/using weapons of mass destruction). There were few visible supporters of the article. Most were along the lines of the comments from a subscriber identified as "J. Micucci":

Really, Rolling Stone? I subscribe for my son and send my sister a yearly gift subscription. No more. I am appalled at your insensitivity. Disgraceful and disgusting. We will no longer be subscribing and when this issue arrives it will go right in the trash.

As you can see from the screen capture below, many others were thinking along the same lines as J. Micucci.

Image: Screen capture from RollingStone.com

For additional thoughts on this cover, check out the post on TheBlaze Blog.

How do you feel about the cover story? Take our Blaze Poll and add your comments below.

Is Rolling Stone Magazine Making The...