I know there's a lot of varying opinions about whether or not Cho's videos should have been shown, so I'll weigh in with mine. Two friends of friends were killed on Monday, I drove 550 miles yesterday to visit Blacksburg and say goodbye, and the media presence is
overwhelming to use just one word. Smothering might be a better one.
You can't even breathe on campus without cameramen following you at the moment, let alone trying to grieve. Not all of the disturbed or unstable young kids will view the video as a call to arms, but I don't think it will dissuade any. The ones who are disturbed enough to do it will do it anyways, with or without the video.
That being said, if they're going to do it anyways, why show the video? Why not show the video? It's an incoherent rant from a very unstable young man, but it doesn't help the healing process at all. Nobody I know who has watched it was glad they've done so, not one person got something useful out of it. Either way, it's out - no putting it back in the bottle.
