Agreed. The Internet can be a harsh mistress. "In the news" can also mean "reading 1000's of mean-spirited comments."
Listen to the people you respect, ignore the rest. And if you do want to interact with the community, for heaven's sake, don't respond to the assholes. They're just background noise.
Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.
I would say, if anything, you should do your best to filter out the total assholes but not disregard all negative feedback. There's a difference between "I hate x software because I'm a FOSS fanatic and your company sucks and destroys the earth", which is pretty harsh and "fuck you, you're queer" which is just safe to ignore.
At least Bieber acknowledges that there's people who don't like him.