I don't think it's so much "negative coverage" people have a problem with if it's coverage for a product that has a lot of verified and commented on failings, but for myself where I get turned off sometimes is when the subject conversation gets sensationalist and layered with subjective commentary on what are supposed to be primarily news articles and not so often commentarys. If it's an obvious editorial article, then I expect commentary. But I'm not hear for the "Dog bites man! Will the breed be the downfall of mankind!" type of news, and I never liked arguing for arguement's sake. I understand there are some people who think differently than I do and maybe that's their thing. I'm here more for the basic technical results on testing products, the industry trends, and the interesting and informative surveys and their results, and what they might all mean, but no so much the sublte, and sometimes not so sublte, goading for a response and poking the bear in the cage.
Just look at the title of this article "You Prefer The Worst - What Does That Say About You?" Seriously? How am I supposed to take that? Is it directed at me? Not directed at me? How would I feel if someone I knew who I was recommedning join and read IPVM saw that as an actual IPVM headline.
As for the Worst versus Best articles, my opinion is it's easier to quantify bad products than good products, so Worst will get more attention. People expect products to work as advertised, and I think they are more concerned about a product failing or not working to the point of being useless and a total waste of money, than if Camera A and Camera B, both who are great cameras, which might have been the better decison. As a society, in general I think we worry by a slightly greater percentage about what could be a disaster, "Will this car be a lemon if I buy it?", "Will this person be a bad choice for a spouse?" and "Will that camera I be brick?", than things like "Would I like the Mercedes better than the BMW", "Laura and Jill are both great, who do I choose?", and "Camera A and B both rated high, what do I choose?".