Media is pretty much always going to provide bad coverage, especially on something potentially "scary." Heck, most of the music they were playing is more dark wave alternative rock than anything else, despite the cultural appearance (much like Ozzie's music sounds more like soft rock than hard rock, despite his reputation).

That said, the glorification of self-destructive behavior and mental instability IS an issue. It's one that has been around for all of history (you can find emo behavior in Tom Sawyer, for crying out loud, and Shakespeare's Romeo is basically an emo parody), and it should be disuaded in that it can be harmful to focus so intently on negative emotions and mental illness.

Emo is a rather normal facet of the romanticism of melancholy, just like punk and metal is generally a romanticism of rage. But, like anything, moderation is key, and making something of this nature in to a lifestyle is fraught with hazards.

Perhaps the main thing is that emo doesn't have a (widely?) known silver lining.

Goth? Becoming comfortable with death can make life much easier.

Punk? As I understand it, punk is associated with defending the working class, which is an important thing with our ever-increasing wealth gaps.

Rock? Rebellion is what America was FOUNDED on (also money, but hey, rock stars).

Country? Glorification of the working class: see punk.

The one thing you could claim of emo, that it promotes the arts, can be said for all the other genres. Emo also tends to promote a very narrow set of styles, most of which was considered wretched by Shakespeare's day (I'm quite serious when I say that Romeo is an emo parody; Petrarchan poetry was already considered cheezy by that time).

Really, if anything, all emo does is highlight some of the disconnects between people and the world around them, but it does little but to enforce the fact, especially when the nastier drugs get involved.

I have a cousin who went emo, consciously and deliberately, and he went from being disturbingly like myself in body and mind, except with much more artistic talent, to showing up to work in Hot Topic gear twice in a row, avoiding bathing, and hoping that he can get social security. And his background isn't half as depressing as mine is.

Personally I'd much rather hang out with goths. Much more energetic, fun-loving, life-living group, often with great ambitions, but who still know how to wear black like it was the new black.