It was rather depressing news. Even if the allegations of child abuse against him were true, given the circumstances in which he grew up it's not surprising that he would turn out that way, and his life is a rather bleak case study of the effects fame has on a person's personal growth. He'd been under constant media exposure since he was like six years old, and we got to witness him literally breaking down.
Though the media harping on it obsessively when there's other shit going on like important votes in Congress about health care and the crap in Iran is rather disturbing in its own right. He was a towering entertainment figure on a scale we're unlikely to see ever again (due partially to how fractured the industry is now and partially, let's be honest, to his charisma and talent as a performer in his heyday), but celebrity deaths are not the only events in the world. It's also hideously cynical since most of the ones airing the tributes were the ones airing the Michael-is-a-paedo allegations in the first place.
In any case, the music endures, and we can be thankful for that at least.
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells