Not so much watching the news but having some kind of ambient noise that may be informative. It's the same reason I have NPR on most of the time in the background.

News provides the gestalt for what's going to be rattling around in other peoples' heads. It also gives you material to work with for small talk.

If your work or day to day life doesn't involve interacting with people even a little bit the utility of this is somewhat limited. I doubt there is a very large number of people for whom that is true.