Yes I too would love an option to disable shorts. Like hide it behind 50 buttons for all I care but please let me disable shorts.
“Welcome to YouTube! Would you like to watch 40 videos on todays slaughter of innocent people?”
No. The answer is always no.
After a short while of doing this the supply of news channels starts drying up, though the algo occasionally attempts to push increasingly unlikely ones on you; just continue mopping them up.