Two thoughts come to mind regarding taming the news reader beast:

1) Apply the two-minute rule. If you can take action (read and react) on it in under 2 minutes, then do so. If not, then make an action out of it. No matter what, though, you may not leave it unread and in your inbox. There are plenty of long blog posts that I want to return to when I have the time. I’ve been using Google Reader’s “Star” feature for these posts. It doesn’t work 100% but is similar to my inbox zero approach.

2) Don’t handle things more than once. In the GTD world, that means papers in your meat space inbox should be picked up and a disposition given. You’re not supposed to put stuff back into the inbox. In the news reader version, I think that means you have to read the article, star it, share it, or whatever — but not leave it there (like the blogger WR did in your retelling).

I would add to your responses two more that I find to be very effective.

1. I use Google Reader so I have the ability to tag posts. So even though I may just skim the post initially, I tag it if it is relevant to a topic that I’m interested in. Then when I need it, I can quickly call up the post.
2. I drop and add feeds on a regular basis based on shared interests. Sometimes a blogger will dig deeply into a topic in which I have little interest, so I’ll drop that feed for a while and then pick it up again at a later date when our interests converge.