Just about all the people I’ve asked in the past few days has agreed that they’re tired of the media coverage of Michael Jackson’s death.

Surveys conducted last week — I saw one from Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and another from HCD Research — found about two thirds of the public feel there’s been too much coverage.

It’s easy to see why.

Turn on a television news program and it’s almost impossible to go a few minutes without a Jackson story. Magazines and newspapers, including ours, have had at least some level coverage just about every day since the pop music star’s June 25 death. The Internet, too, is filled with Jackson blogs and links to news stories.

The level of the coverage that remains nearly two weeks after Jackson’s death is remarkable.

But if the public opinion is negative about the coverage, why are media companies continuing to provide it? The answer is simple - huge numbers of people are still consuming it.

The HCD poll also found that 80 percent of the public admitted to be engaged by Jackson stories when they encountered them. We’ve seen similar evidence locally. As I write this column, the second-most viewed story on our Web site Monday was a piece about U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who was blasting Jackson and the coverage his death has received.

This tension between what the public says it wants and what it is drawn to raises some challenging questions for media companies, especially companies whose mission is to provide news. (It makes sense for a program such as “Entertainment Tonight” to be all over this story two weeks later.)

It would irresponsible to use the potential for high ratings, Web site traffic or newsstand sales as the only basis for deciding to include coverage of something.

Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz explained it well on a CNN program last week. Here’s an exchange he had with the show’s host, Kitty Pilgrim:

“And yet ratings reflect popular interest, don’t they, Howard?” Pilgrim asked.

His response: “Well, sure. But if you’re going to program your news network that way, you can put on naked Jell-O wrestling and do a big number.”

At The Citizen, where our mission is first and foremost to provide local news and information, we’ve tried to include some news coverage of Jackson’s death without sacrificing other content. Jackson was on our front page the first couple of days, and has since gone on inside pages, typically with one story or a brief.

Too much or not enough? Please let us know what you think.

Executive editor Jeremy Boyer’s columns appear Tuesdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net