Don't blame the people. Blame the media for rapid-fire spamming of the news and their penchant for viral information.
It's roughly similar with Chris Benoit, or any person that was both really famous for its job, and who had some serious circumstances. Benoit was an excellent, hard working wrestler, who gave wrestling a lot of highs. Most people wish to respect that particular point of his career, and they condemn his kind of end (murder-suicide).
In Jackson's case, it's the same. He was truly a gifted and talented artist. But, he was also a child molester, and a proven one in court. People will seek respect for his talent, and probably ignore him as a person.
So why the media? Because of being hypocrites. Giving importance to his career while finishing digging his career's grave because of the rapid-fire viral spamming of scandals. Sure, that doesn't mean he's free of guilt (and well, nobody likes child molesters where fame is worthless!), but you can't just trust the media.
I mean, it's the same kind of media that has a vendetta against a former Catholic priest (and part-time media star) for being "too comfortable" with a chick. He turned Episcopalian because he wants to keep serving God while ditching that silly "discipline" of celibacy. The media responds how? Accusations of ordering people to kill, of forcing deportations, and now that he's gay. And each new accusation is being taken at face value.
Sometimes, it's important to realize that the media, specifically the gossip media, loooves to exaggerate. If he was a revolutionary singer and you want to respect that, fine; if you want to bash him as a child molester, fine. Just recall that you never lived close to him, you know of his life as much as the media told you.
This isn't much of an apology to him than a diatribe against gossip media.
As for how many RIP posts and stuff you see around, recall that Michael Jackson had the ability to make most female fans cry in ecstasy (or well, did) Those fans are the ones that are probably rapid-spamming the RIP posts.
And since people are taking the time to do random R.I.P. wishes, here's for two people I respect more than Jacko:
R.I.P. E. Gary Gygax
R.I.P. David L. Arneson
...damn, it gives me the idea of reviving Jacko as a zombie bard on my campaign. Should give it a try
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