Knee Jerk Responses To The Rolling Stone cover

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meccalecca
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  • #1
  • Posted: 07/19/2013 16:50
  • Post subject: Knee Jerk Responses To The Rolling Stone cover
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Say what you will about the cover of Rolling Stone but the feature it's connected with is the best piece of journalism that I've seen related to the tragedy that occurred in Boston. RS has painted a very real portrait of Jahar. This is complex person, like all of us. His actions are unquestionably indefensible, but they also seem to be a extreme misguided reaction to the crumbling fabric of the society in which we all live. It's clear that a multitude of factors had broken him down, leading him to depression and disgust of a country he may have once appreciated.

What Rolling Stone has done is to continue to show that the world is not a black & white place filled with only good & evil. Much of the world exists within a very very complex grey area in which good and evil are not crystal clear.

I understand that it's hard for many to see a mass murderer on a cover of a magazine usually reserved to false idols. It brings back some rather disturbing memories. But it's also accompanied by very serious journalism, exploring something that we probably shouldn't turn a blind eye to.

Additionally, there's a real irony about the companies banning the issue and news outlets reporting about it. First of all, many of these companies couldn't care less about anything but the positive publicity their milking by banning the magazine. These are companies which stock pornography, and carry products made with child slave labor. Meanwhile, media outlets that were extremely insensitive with their coverage during the tragedy are standing on their moral high horse over Rolling Stone. I'm talking about you NY Post (who ran photos of alleged suspects who turned out completely innocent, and who also owns Village Voice - a publication connected to supporting sex trafficking).
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sp4cetiger





  • #2
  • Posted: 07/31/2013 07:25
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The cover is cheap exploitation. However good the article is at bringing out the real human being, the picture served only to polarize and sensationalize the story for monetary gain. I completely agree that we should try to understand Jahar, if for no other reason than to help prevent another tragedy like this, but that image made him out like a sex symbol. That's just stupid.
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Kool Keith Sweat





  • #3
  • Posted: 07/31/2013 10:08
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Putting Jakar on the RS cover was in bad taste, as was putting Charlie Manson on the cover previously. Magazine covers, and especially Rolling Stone covers, are usually reserved for 'positive', popular personalities, not killers. That's not really even the point I have issue with though.

The picture is attached to your run-of-the-mill shit journalism from RS.

Perhaps the only interesting insights RS provided were his twitter feed (which anyone can look up) and their brief touch on his Dagestani roots. RS doesn't explore his Dagestani roots much (or even Dagestani history which might give some clues), doesn't press his family, doesn't interview him, doesn't explore motive (but rather creates a picture in which an American audience can easily create their own image of cookie-cutter anti-American Islamic terrorism), doesn't really say shit outside of interviewing his high school friends. It was rushed to press solely for controversy. You say it paints a killer as a complex human, but anyone who's not a dumbass realizes a human is a human and Ted Bundy would've been likeable in a club.

The whole thing simply wasn't worth it, but I guess it sold copy. I bought my first RS in almost 10 years.
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meccalecca
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  • #4
  • Posted: 07/31/2013 12:00
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ppnw wrote:
Putting Jakar on the RS cover was in bad taste, as was putting Charlie Manson on the cover previously. Magazine covers, and especially Rolling Stone covers, are usually reserved for 'positive', popular personalities, not killers. That's not really even the point I have issue with though.

The picture is attached to your run-of-the-mill shit journalism from RS.

Perhaps the only interesting insights RS provided were his twitter feed (which anyone can look up) and their brief touch on his Dagestani roots. RS doesn't explore his Dagestani roots much (or even Dagestani history which might give some clues), doesn't press his family, doesn't interview him, doesn't explore motive (but rather creates a picture in which an American audience can easily create their own image of cookie-cutter anti-American Islamic terrorism), doesn't really say shit outside of interviewing his high school friends. It was rushed to press solely for controversy. You say it paints a killer as a complex human, but anyone who's not a dumbass realizes a human is a human and Ted Bundy would've been likeable in a club.

The whole thing simply wasn't worth it, but I guess it sold copy. I bought my first RS in almost 10 years.


From what I can tell, most people who actually read it and did not come away with anything were looking for too much. They were looking for obvious clues. They were looking for definitive motives. But I think it's far more psychological. We all want to find huge psychological differences between ourselves and murderers. If we didn't, that'd be a problem. But the reality is that differences are slight. He was a kid who slid fast into depression and desperation. Those are powerful forces that make a person far more malleable. That's what I got out of the article. But maybe it's because I studied psych and have seen what desperation and depression do to people

Also, I know RS has terrible music coverage but they've always had quite impressive serious political journalism. Currently, Matt Taibbi is one of the strongest political writers alive.
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Polythene Pam





  • #5
  • Posted: 07/31/2013 12:20
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meccalecca wrote:
But maybe it's because I studied psych and have seen what desperation and depression do to people


Sorry someone had to do this.

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meccalecca
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  • #6
  • Posted: 07/31/2013 12:29
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Polythene Pam wrote:
Sorry someone had to do this.


Yeah. I guess I was asking for that. But i did minor in psych and diagnosed a roomate as having Asperger's before he knew. My girlfriend has her Master's in Art Therapy, worked at Bellevue's psych ward.

I'm no expert, but I've definitely seen depression and desperation first hand. a handful of my friends committed suicide and in 8th grade a friend was murdered by another student. I've been mugged at gunpoint. blah blah blah
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joyofdivision





  • #7
  • Posted: 07/31/2013 12:43
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My knee is still jerking.
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Jackwc
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  • #8
  • Posted: 08/01/2013 06:20
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meccalecca wrote:
Yeah. I guess I was asking for that. But i did minor in psych and diagnosed a roomate as having Asperger's before he knew.


Pfft, calling Asperger's is easy as hell. I must've successfully called it on at least twenty people. Shit, I called JMan autistic and that nail turned out to be right on the abnormal chromosome.

Gaydar, on the other hand, now THAT is a talent. I can pin a three dollar bill blindfolded over my shoulder with a dull steak knife.
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meccalecca
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  • #9
  • Posted: 08/01/2013 11:42
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Jackwc wrote:
Pfft, calling Asperger's is easy as hell. I must've successfully called it on at least twenty people. Shit, I called JMan autistic and that nail turned out to be right on the abnormal chromosome.

Gaydar, on the other hand, now THAT is a talent. I can pin a three dollar bill blindfolded over my shoulder with a dull steak knife.


I used to be assistant art director at a gay men's lifestyle magazine. i think i had strong gaydar back then, but after i left it really weakened.

But just saying someone has Asperber's isn't a skill unless they actually do.
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sp4cetiger





  • #10
  • Posted: 08/01/2013 16:38
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meccalecca wrote:

just saying someone has Asperger's isn't a skill unless they actually do.


I'm going to go out on a limb and say this should be the title of Yo La Tengo's next album.
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