Most news is designed to sell you cars and laundry detergent.

More to the point, you're not the customer. You're the product. Advertisers are the customer. So the news isn't really meant to inform, but rather to encourage sticking around to see what happens next. Appeal to baser emotions works well for that.

Think of it that way, and people asking for cute kitten pics online because they're having a bad day is functionally the same thing as crazy talk radio.