In a disruptive startup, you always start with a _worse_ product that appeals to a marginally group of users who'll fervently love you.
The demographic that's on Buzzfeed all the time, is the type who wouldn't be reading news anyways. So what if they look at cats and take quizes, and once in a while eyeball an article about Ferguson / Ukraine / ISIS that they wouldn't have done anyways. Look at http://www.buzzfeed.com/world, how many of those are linkbaits? How many are quality contents? It's not unimaginable that overtime, the (vegetable news) : (shitty news) ratio can increase.
Hating on Buzzfeed is like hating on Pinterest in early days because it was made for a bunch of old women, or AirBNB because it promotes unsafe and unregulated travel, or Dropbox because it promotes uncontrolled privacy by moving your stuff online. You can't please everyone all the time, so you start with a niche and increase quality overtime to appeal the the mass audience.
Why can't people accept that Buzzfeed, at its current state, isn't meant to appeal to everyone? Those who bash at Buzzfeed sound like the mindless YouTube comments on Justin Bieber's videos saying how shitty his music is. It's not for you. Don't listen to it.