Don’t buy the magazine.
A simple, First Amendment-friendly response. Quick,
direct and easy to accomplish. And some outlets like drug and convenience
stores are helping with the decision by refusing to stock the current issue on
their shelves, responding to criticism that it glorifies the accused or insults
the bomb victims and their families.
Still, there’s no conflict here with free press or
free speech on either side. The editors at Rolling Stone get to choose whatever
they want as the cover image — nothing in the 45 words of the First Amendments
sets standards or guidelines for their decision.
And as long as it’s private companies like CVS and
Walgreens, and not the government leaving that space vacant on the magazine
rack, no problem there. Those private decision makers may, in turn, have to
face questions from those customers who wanted to purchase the magazine.
What began as a flurry of online criticism was
followed by widespread media reports and commentary on the controversy and
outrage. All of that has propelled the issue — both the printed one and the
reason some are calling for a boycott — to much higher visibility.
TV’s Stephen Colbert may have made the sagest
observation: The biggest hurdle facing those hoping to hurt sales of the
magazine through a boycott may be finding people who still buy magazines. Ouch,
on a number of levels.
The article that the cover image points to is
somewhat overlooked in the flap over the cover flap: “How a Popular, Promising Student Was Failed by his
Family, Fell Into Radical Islam and Became a Monster.”
Celebrity fluff, it’s not.
Magazine covers have been stirring emotions and
outrage for a long time. Time named Adolph Hitler as 1939′s Man of the Year. In
that case, it was more the choice than the cover that drew criticism. Time‘s
response was that it was not honoring Hitler but rather denoting the person who
had the most impact on the world in the previous year.
On April 8, 1966, Time again published what some
consider the most controversial cover of all time — and it had only words, the
first time that the magazine did not use a photo or illustration: “Is God
Dead?”
The article examined new approaches in that era of
looking at faith and organized religion. No word, then, on whether the cover
inspired Beatle John Lennon’s famous remark a few months later that the group
was more popular than Jesus Christ.
Other controversial magazine covers since then have
ranged from Time‘s darkened mug shot of O.J. Simpson, a suspect in his wife’s
death, to New Yorker magazine’s satirical drawing in 2008 of then-presidential
candidate Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as a robed Arab figure and a
gun-wielding terrorist. The magazine said the cover was intended to poke fun at
those caricaturing the future first couple as just that.
The New Yorker made waves recently with its cover
showing Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie reacting to the U.S. Supreme
Court’s ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act. For the record, while some
complained the cover made the pair appear to be gay, the Muppet creators said
the two are “just good friends.”
For Rolling Stone‘s part, Tsarnaev is not the first
accused mass murderer to show up on its cover. Cult leader Charles Manson
appeared in the June 1970 issue.
The bottom line to all of this may well be the
bottom line: Boycotts aside, the renewed presence of venerable Rolling Stone in
a national discussion may well mean a boost, for now, in circulation. But it’s
also been a valuable exercise in exercising our First Amendment rights, no
matter what view you hold about the cover image.
About the author: Gene Policinski is senior vice
president of the First Amendment Center and COO of the Newseum Institute.
E-mail him at gpolicinski[at]newseum.org.
This article was published by the First Amendment
Center.
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