Some people watch or read news just a little "to be informed". I suspect part of the reason they do it is it gives them something to chatter about with the other idiots at the water cooler. (Or at least it did in the halcyon days when people were allowed to approach one another within less than six feet). But there are also those who are obsessed and spend a lot of time receiving news. I wonder, do they actually find the news more interesting than other stuff they could be doing? Or are their lives and brains so empty that they just need any filler to stuff themselves with?

Of course the news is repetitious and boring. It's meant to be. It fills people's heads with useless trivia that is quite irrelevant to their lives. Aside from simply wasting your time, it disempowers you by taking attention away from what matters (family and local community life) and refocusing it on affairs that are distant from you and over which you have no control. Worrying about things you can't control is disempowering; it produces a victim mentality.

Aside from any propaganda purposes of news, the medium is the message. The purpose of news is to keep the sheep within the virtual pen of the media, forever grazing, munching and regurgitating the pabulum. And the "serious" news links into various entertainment media, social media, sports, and so on, creating a self-reinforcing network of brain-rotting bullshit.

Yes, the news was always part of the (free!) programming on the train to the gulag.