If you can't help yourself and want to find out about a big news event, check Wikipedia. Wikipedia is updated in pretty much real-time for major events, which can defeat the point, but at least it's filtered down to accepted facts rather than endless, time-sucking speculation.
But I don't follow my advice that well. Like I've gotten kind of sucked in by Twitter because I think patio11's tweetstorms are brilliant and don't want to miss any. And pg's tweets about his kids are just delightful. But then I end up sucked in by news.
So, yeah, I could use help too!
Oh yeah, Beeminder+RescueTime is always a good place to start for forcing yourself to spend more or less time on certain things, but that's not quite the same question as how to just make one's newsfeed less self-destructive.
I think you're right, Dan. It seems like a pretty existential problem at this point.
What is the alternative here? Is there such a thing as an ethical "news feed", and how would I make one ethical?
(PS: HN: Beeminder is awesome and you should try it).