Generally speaking I'd say that the problem is more that most daily news will give you a distorted view of the world as you come to believe that newsworthy things are much more common than they really are. I try to follow the news only on a week to week only basis, a long enough lag to let people actually get their facts straight before rushing to report. Reading the wikipedia pages for events also tends to result in a really good summary without excess fluff.

Of course, last Friday I was stuck inside with everyone else in my section of Boston and I mostly spent the day following my friends with scanners on zephyr. So the temptation does get to be too much when the news is too close by.