I disagree.

I did work for a startup that specifically showed un-biased news on a variety of pertinent topics from a variety of great sources.

Yet the videos that made the most money for them (advertising revenue) were the stupid shit you'd expect. Gossip, memes, sexual related content...

At the end of the day the most mainstream news stories/clips were far more lucrative than the topics a typical HNers/New Yorker reader might enjoy.

The OP referred to turning various kinds of interesting subject matter into entertainment, versus merely reporting it. I think this is actually an interesting idea, and I don't think it has really been tried.

The typical entertaining news story "writes itself". Gossip, stupid pet tricks, etc.

Indeed the entertainment industry is itself very conservative in its choices of subject matter.