The Times absolves Rolling Stone of irresponsibility in two ways: first, that the soft-focus image of the attractive teenage Tsarnaev (whose physical features have captured the affections of a number equally deranged teenage girls) was featured on the front page of the Times itself. It is surprising that the terminally solipsistic New York Times did not stop there, presuming that this justification was all that was required to prove the correctness of Rolling Stone’s course. One could practically hear the heavy sighs of the editorial writers as they shouldered their obligation to continue.

The Times editorial board observed that TIME Magazine has featured killers on their covers over the decades as well, including Adolph Hitler and Osama bin Laden. Even Rolling Stone itself has featured Charles Manson on its cover – though the fear that a copycat would devote his life to brainwashing a number of impressionable young women to commit murders in his name is less compelling than the concern that a disaffected teenager might chose to fill a pressure cooker with low explosives and metal fragments.

Finally, the Times notes that the article in question – an 11-page, thoroughly detailed examination of the circumstances which led a relatively naturalized American teen to embrace jihad and commit an act of terror – is a fascinating read and is sufficiently exculpatory for whatever provocation the magazine’s cover represents. If the impressionable teen compelled by derangement to commit mass murder fails to read the article, well, that’s on them.