NEW YORK — The three major drug chains have banned sales of the August issue of Rolling Stone magazine, which pictures accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on its cover.
CVS/pharmacy, Walgreen Co. and Rite Aid Corp. prohibited the sale of the publication in response to charges that the cover glorified Tsarnaev with a rock-star-like photo.
“As a company with deep roots in New England and a strong presence in Boston, we believe this is the right decision out of respect for the victims of the attack and their loved ones,” CVS said in a statement on its Facebook page.
The Rolling Stone cover bears a close-up photo of the young Tsarnaev with the headline, “The Bomber: How a Popular, Promising Student Was Failed by His Family, Fell Into Radical Islam and Became a Monster.”
The April 15 bombing that Tsarnaev is charged with carrying out killed three people and injured 260. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said the photo “rewards a terrorist with celebrity treatment,” while Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said it was in bad taste. Many social media comments criticized it as a sympathetic portrait.
“Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us,” Walgreens stated on its Twitter site. “Walgreens will not be selling this issue of Rolling Stone magazine.”
Rite Aid said it would not carry the issue “out of respect for those affected by the Boston Marathon bombing.”
Rolling Stone’s editors said in a statement that they stand by the story and expressed sympathy for the bombing victims and their families: “Our hearts go out to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, and our thoughts are always with them and their families.”
The editors said it was important for the magazine “to examine the complexities of this issue and gain a more complete understanding of how a tragedy like this happens.”
