Yesterday, Rolling Stone revealed that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will grace the cover of their upcoming August 1st issue. The announcement was immediately met by backlash from Facebook and Twitter, including a campaign to unsubscribe from the magazine and a boycott against buying or selling the issue.
In response to the public outrage, Rolling Stone issued a statement today arguing that they are genuinely trying to investigate why a young man, the same age as many of their readers, would commit such a crime. Meanwhile, Boston mayor Thomas Menino criticized the editorial decision in an open letter via Boston Herald, asserting that the magazine "reward[ed] a terrorist with celebrity treatment" instead of honoring victims, survivors and first responders.