Sort out negative gossip from the rest. Not all gossip is necessarily bad, so you don't need to completely eradicate it from your life. You should, however, learn to differentiate between harmless gossip and the kind of gossip that hurts people. [2]
People who are spreading gossip (and most people do at some time or another) don't spend a lot of time getting facts. In fact, they have usually heard the information they're spreading second or third hand.