People are "allowed" to ignore drugs and nicotine but it's pretty hard and culture and laws help us constrain the lower bound will power you have to have in order to live a life. I'm not necessarily saying drugs and news addiction are as strong or as destructive but there should probably be some "let's act in a way that's good for the public" ideas floating around rather than pure "the free hand means it's moral" motivated greed.
People are also “allowed” to focus their attention on whatever they want. It seems like you’re saying we are powerless to ignore the news, although I am curious if you mean something else.