The Wire

Rolling Stone has long explored social and political issues alongside music and entertainment in its influential pages. But this month, those issues have hit the front cover, in the form of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – accused of the Boston Marathon bombings in April which killed three people and injured over 200. The story on him isn’t very flattering, but the bewitching cover portrait arguably is. And it’s caused an uproar; condemned by politicians, victims and even several newsagents. So does the image do more than just illustrate Tsarnaev’s demise?