Bloggers are more of a threat than people realize, and they are only going to get more toxic. This is the new reality. — Peter Blackshaw, Intelliseek (which has a blog !)

Steve Rubel is right. Forbes blows it.

According to a rather alarmist cover story, bloggers are a veritable lynch mob. Why? Because bloggers have the power to create “swarms,” which could be a benefit or threat to the target.

Blogs started a few years ago as a simple way for people to keep online diaries. Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns. It’s not easy to fight back: Often a bashing victim can’t even figure out who his attacker is. No target is too mighty, or too obscure, for this new and virulent strain of oratory. Microsoft has been hammered by bloggers; so have CBS, CNN and ABC News, two research boutiques that criticized IBM’s Notes software, the maker of Kryptonite bike locks, a Virginia congressman outed as a homosexual and dozens of other victims–even a right-wing blogger who dared defend a blog-mob scapegoat.

But as Steve said, bloggers “can be a company’s greatest allies and evangelists if AND only IF we take the time to take them seriously and engage them in dialogue.” He advises businesses to ignore Forbes’s tirade and judge bloggers for themselves.

Other bloggers buzzing: Blogspotting, Jaffe Juice , Chris Pirillo, NevOn, Below the Fold…

Are you a blogger who wants to learn how to research like a journalist? Sign up for the Heritage Foundation’s Computer-Assisted Research and Reporting (CARR) sessions. Mark Tapscott writes:

The Media Bloggers Association is hosting its second-ever Database 101/201 CARR Boot Camp Sept. 23-24 at the National Press Club….

Attendance at the CARR boot camps is free and there are a limited number of fellowships available to assist with travel and hotel expenses. You can view the agenda here. Enrollment info here. Hurry because enrollment is limited to the first dozen enrollees.

More at Tapscott’s Copy Desk and Outside the Beltway.

Jeff Jarvis, a media critic, consultant and blogger, has a must-read article in yesterday’s Guardian (Use BugMeNot to get around the annoying registration):

[M]ainstream news is under assault by scandals, declining credibility, shrinking audience, disappearing advertising dollars, exploding online competition … and those darned bloggers.

So newsrooms are at last getting serious about plugging into the internet. Last week, the New York Times announced it is merging its print and online news operations. In their staff announcement, executives said this ends a separation that “allowed our digital operation to flourish, to experiment”, so now they can “raise digital journalism to the next level” - and, one hopes, so they can electrify old journalism as well. At the same time, CBS News has decreed that all its 1,500 journalists will now feed the internet. Take it from me: that’s easier announced than accomplished.

Traditional journalism’s gradual merging with online journalism is inevitable. People are plugged in to computers, and wireless will only become cheaper. Old school journalists have little choice in the matter, so Jarvis gives them seven suggestions on how to be a “digital” journalist. I agree with all except the first: burn the business cards.

He may be referring to an attitude more than a card per se, but they’ve proved invaluable for me as I visit blogger conventions and meet others. Instead of scribbling blog URLs on pieces of paper, people can hand out basic business cards containing the information. Some like to include their e-mail and physical addresses and phone numbers; others list only their names and URLs.

Get 250 for free at Vista Print. All you pay for is shipping.

Update: One can never read too many blog studies. Visit Business Week’s blog (blogging journalists!) and click on the link for “Behaviors of the Blogosphere.”