Sometimes you have to be. How many big-name people have died in less than a week, and all anyone gives a s**t about is Michael Jackson? Any store you go to plays his music at least every sixth song. Every TV and radio station has almost non-stop tributes to his music.
Yes, he sung a lot of great songs, but for the love of {insert deity here}, how many other people and news stories are they ignoring over this? Not only that, but before he died, everyone was laughing at him! Sure you should have respect for the dead, but now people are acting like all the jokes and allegations never even happened.
I guess they'd feel like they're mean if they admitted to it.