When good blogs turn bad

I'm interested in blogs. But I had a small taste of their sinister side quite recently and it disturbed me. I won't mention its name but there is a relatively well known blog written by various people at my work. There's been much written about it in the Media section of The Australian, on Crikey and various other places.
Essentially it's a gossip portal for all the chicks (I am assuming it's mostly chicks posting) at the media organisation I work for.
I made the mistake of visiting it.
Never again.
Oh my goodness, the sheer vitriol that dripped from every sentence. The nastiness of the anonymous mentions ... that so-and-so is sleeping with so-and-so, that such-and-such is no good at their job, that someone-or-other picks their nose. I'M SERIOUS.
For a minute or two I was glued to it, I suspect (me being paranoid me) I was scanning the words for any mention that may pertain to me.
The feeling it left in my stomach was awful. This sort of stuff is crippling when you're on the receiving end of it - and I want no part of it.
I won't be visiting that site ever again.