I'm highly doubtful that ignoring "up to the minute" news is going to hurt anyone. "News" in it's most frequently consumed form now seems less like a useful presentation of information without slant and much more like "Journalists react."

The useful news is usually not 'up to the minute', not particularly eye catching or entertaining, and is very well sourced. It usually takes the form of things like journal papers, voting records, or the results of careful document audits. It rarely is concerned with any single person and is much more concerned with the actions of many people over time.

Basically, 'news' now seems mostly about entertainment, and telling people "you have an obligation to follow this particular form of entertainment" seems like a very silly thing to say.