Attack on the blogs

I came across an article over the weekend quoted several times on a range of blogs. The article some of you may have already come across is called Attack of the Blogs by Daniel Lyons of Forbes.com. What grabbed my attention was a sub-heading that read, "Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective".

The article centres on how a successful company's stock value plummeted after a blogger launched a slanderous on-line campaign against its major shareholder. The article then goes on to attack blogging like I've never come across before. For instance, after one sentence meant to portray blogs as some sort of innocent pastime - "[b]logs started a few years ago as a simple way for people to keep online diaries" - Lyons launches into nothing less than a viscous rant about blogging in general. The main point is how would someone reading about blogs for the first time view blogs in the future?

Quotes from Lyon's article include: "they are the ultimate vehicle for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns", big corporations have been "hammered by bloggers", "they serve up vitriolic "content"", and, "they...spread bogus information".

What worries me most about the article in question is a sense that it is actually bloggers under attack from the established media - not the other way around. The author makes no distinction between the vast range of blogs and the ideas and intentions behind their existence. In brief, I believe Lyons tarnishes all bloggers with the same brush and that makes him as bad as the person allegedly behind the half-told story he bases his article on.

My prediction for the near future would be to expect blogs to come under serious attack from the established media, big businesses and governments. An attack of this kind is probably just the beginning.