It'd be interesting to optimize for other factors. I'd like to see a news source that tries to optimize its presentation to incite the least possible controversy/argument while keeping engagement high.

I'd guess this would be done by thoroughly explaining "both sides" of an issue (not in "equal times" terms, but in "all that can be said, has been said" terms)—but who knows, maybe there's a clever trick to doing something like this that such an algorithm would force into existence, much like PageRank forced the SEO industry into existence.

My comment assumed we were optimizing to minimize bias - which people do care about - and gave an approach to solve that. Optimizing for engagement is fine, and profitable. You just can't claim to be unbiased.