Several years ago I realized that the answer to "why" for me was that I found it entertaining to read a lot of "news". When I examined this however I decided that for me it was largely a waste of time.
The fact is a lot of what web sites (and print journalism before it) publish has never been more than entertainment thinly disguised as something important.
I still scan the news sites every day to look for things that might actually be important information that I feel I should be aware, but otherwise I read a LOT less "news" than I used to.