At a news industry conference the other day, there was a spirited discussion of covering important foreign news versus the stuff that people actually want to watch or read. The Observer included this exchange on a panel between Ann Curry of NBC, who has been heroic at covering everything from Darfur to Iran, and Rick Sanchez of CNN:

“Let me come clean with you guys, and let’s not pretend that we’re talking to children,” Mr. Sanchez said. “If today, Britney Spears is caught shoplifting topless, I’m making this up by the way, and we don’t do it…” Ms. Curry interjected, her lips pursed at her microphone: “I’m not doing the interview and I’m not doing it.” Mr. Sanchez talked over her. “But I guarantee you, normally, they will have a million viewers to our 20,000 if we decide we’re going for Darfur.” “Some things you’ve gotta do,” Ms. Curry said.

Ann Curry has actually been amazingly good at telling the story of Darfur so engagingly that it seems as compelling as Britney Spears shoplifting topless. But it’s an uphill struggle. The Iran story is a reflection of the declining state of international coverage by the world’s media. There are far fewer reporters than there would have been a half-dozen years ago, because it’s expensive. Much cheaper to have a Democrat and a Republican in a studio yelling at each other.

Twitter has been all over CNN for not providing more coverage, but at least it has a correspondent there in the thick of it. In contrast, Fox News is all over another protest story — Sarah Palin’s family vs. David Letterman. I hope that Fox will get trounced in the ratings for focusing on the cheap, meaningless story as it ignores history in the making, but I doubt it.

For now, I’m just grateful that enough network and news executives see journalism as a responsibility, and not just a business model. And I think ordinary citizens can needle news organization that ignore the news, and thank those that cover it, as one way to make a bit of difference.

UPDATE: Some readers have suggested an excellent compromise. We in the news media should be much more aggressive about covering Britney Spears, for example, whenever she shoplifts topless in Darfur or Burma!