G8 Summit, CNN, and Big Assumptions

I happened to turn on the TV while I chowed down on a cup of yogurt for lunch only to catch a rather breathless, excited Gary Tuchman on CNN talking about how demonstrators have managed to get near the site of the summit.

That's cool. At least until I heard him announce that these people were very serious anarchists, angry, and very dangerous. But nothing in the reporting I heard (and granted, I only stuck around for the time it takes to consume 8 ounces of yogurt) indicated he had any basis for announcing these were anarchists, very angry, or dangerous. Not one single fact seemed available to make this statement.

Lots of people every year try to get close enough to these summits to get their voices heard. The people who get hurt (and killed) are usually the demonstrators. More and more, the world's leaders are kept farther and farther away from the peons they purportedly represent. Most of the angry and dangerous people I've seen have been the police forces who have done some outrageous things, resulting in unnecessary deaths.