Former FCC official: Rolling Stone boycott 'reminiscent of Nazi book-burning

Of the public backlash against the latest Rolling Stone featuring an attractive cover photo of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, former FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson writes in USA Today:

They are reminiscent of Nazi book-burning, or Taliban reactions to pictures of Muhammad, and reveal a profound ignorance of the informative role of journalism in a democracy. ...

Rolling Stone was scarcely honoring the bomber, let alone declaring him the Person of the Year (as Time may choose to do). The front page of the online version of the Aug. 1 Rolling Stone headlines the top story, "Jahar: The Making of a Monster." The inside sub-head reads, in part, "no one saw the pain he was hiding or the monster he would become." Neither reads like the wording of a publicist working for Jahar. ...

Americans need that picture and story. Because Jahar is what bombers look like. Neither Middle East wars abroad nor NSA spying at home can save us. What perhaps could help is trying to understand American citizens like Jahar in Boston and McVeigh in Oklahoma City.

@eScarry