Boston Mayor Menino shreds Rolling Stone over 'celebrity treatment' of Tsarnaev

Sarah D. | 4:19 PM on July 17, 2013

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino sees Rolling Stone’s shameful Dzhokhar Tsarnaev cover as a spit in the faces of the victims and survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing, and he’s making sure that Rolling Stone co-founder and publisher Jann Wenner knows exactly how he feels:

More Mayor Menino to Rolling Stone: "To respond to you in anger is to feed into your obvious marketing strategy…"

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2013

Menino: "The survivors of the Boston attacks deserve Rolling Stone cover stories, though I no longer feel that Rolling Stone deserves them."

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2013

Boom.

Here’s the full letter:

READ: Boston's Mayor Menino issues statement on @RollingStone cover feat alleged Boston bomber http://t.co/CMIjqFoQhb pic.twitter.com/9q6OM2XxxL

— NewsBreaker (@NewsBreaker) July 17, 2013

Dear Mr. Wenner,

Your August 3 cover rewards a terrorist with celebrity treatment. it is ill-conceived, at best, and re-affirms a terrible message that destruction gains fame for killers and their “causes”. There may be valuable journalism behind your sensational treatment, though we can’t know because almost all you released is the cover. (Editor’s note: Rolling Stone has since posted the full article online.)

To respond to you in anger is to feed into your obvious marketing strategy. So I write to you instead to put the focus where you could have: on the brave and strong survivors and on the thousands of people — their family and friends, volunteers, first responders, doctors, nurses, and donors — who have come to their side. Among those we lost, those who survived, and those who help carry them forward, there are artists and musicians and dancers and writers. They have dreams and plans. They struggle and strive The survivors of the Boston attacks deserve Rolling Stone cover stories, though I no longer feel that Rolling Stone deserves them.