Attack of the magazine

Attack of the magazine: Somewhere along the way, the writing of this Forbes cover story careened off the highway.

I suppose the assignment started as a look into weblogs that are used to drive up- or down- stock prices. However, it made the cover with the screaming head: “Attack of the Blogs.” Ironically, it comes off as a poorly-reported, slimy attack rant of the entire blogosphere.

Like Steve Rubel, I’m perplexed by how mis-directed this Forbes piece is. In a sidebar, the magazine even suggests that companies file frivolous lawsuits against ISPs of bloggers they believe are attacking them.

There’s a sentence buried in it, “Attack blogs are but a sliver of the rapidly expanding blogosphere.” However, if you read this story, you’ll think all blogs are killer tomatoes.

Update: As expected, this hack-job lit up the blogosphere. There are links to lots more discussion of it at tech.memorandum.com. Of note: Dan Gillmore nails it: “a pile of trash.”