p type="articleSubhead"Press secretary delivers message on behalf of president.br/By Jocelyn Vena/p p a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1614849/20090626/jackson_michael.jhtml" img type="photo" src="http://www.mtv.com/shared/promoimages/news/c/change_011109/281x211.jpg"/ /a br/ i type="articlePhotoCaption"President Barack Obama (file)/i br/ i type="articlePhotoCredit"Photo: Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images/i /p p type="articleText" p Although President Obama held a press conference on Friday, no one asked him for his reaction to the news of a href="/news/articles/1614744/20090625/jackson_michael.jhtml"Michael Jackson's death/a on Thursday in Los Angeles. In a separate press conference, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that reporters seemed to shy to ask the president about the legendary singer #8212; even though he is an avowed music fan #8212; so Gibbs said that he spoke with Obama about Jackson's passing. /pp"I talked to [the president] about it this morning. He said to me that obviously a href="/music/artist/jackson_michael/artist.jhtml"Michael Jackson/a was a spectacular performer and a music icon," Gibbs said, according to a href="http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/06/26/obama-on-michael-jackson-via-gibbs.aspx" target="_new"iNewsweek./i/a "I think everybody remembers hearing his songs, watching him moonwalk on television during Motown's 25th anniversary. But the president also said [Jackson] had aspects of his life that were sad and tragic. And his condolences went out to the Jackson family and to the fans that mourned his loss." /pp/pdiv style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;" embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:videolist:mtv.com:1614754" width="256" height="223" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashVars="configParams=instance%3Dnews%26id%3D161 4754" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="."/embed/divp /ppThe president joins a very long list of notable figures paying tribute to the singer, including longtime friends like Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson and Madonna. /pp"I can't stop crying; this is too sudden and shocking," Jackson's longtime friend and co-star in "The Wiz," a href="/news/articles/"Diana#160;Ross, told MTV News/a in a statement. "I am unable to imagine this. My heart is hurting. I am in prayer for his kids and the family." /ppa href="/news/articles/1614751/20090625/jackson_michael.jhtml"Madonna said/a in a statement, "I can't stop crying over the sad news. I have always admired Michael Jackson. The world has lost one of the greats, but his music will live on forever! My heart goes out to his three children and other members of his family. God bless." /ppbDon't miss "A Celebration of Michael Jackson on MTV," airing at 6 p.m. ET/PT on MTV, followed by an encore presentation of "America's Best Dance Crew," featuring music from iThriller,/i at 7 p.m. MTV will be paying tribute to MJ throughout the weekend with music videos, exclusive performances and calls and tweets from celebrity admirers and friends. /ppShare your Michael Jackson memories by uploading video and comments to a href="http://your.mtv.com/"Your.MTV.com/a or joining the discussion below./b /p /p bRelated Videos/b ul li a type="relatedVideo" href="http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1614830"Michael Jackson's MTV Moments/a /li li a type="relatedVideo" href="http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1614754"Michael Jackson: A Tribute/a /li li a type="relatedVideo" href="http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1614746"Remembering Michael Jackson/a /li li a type="relatedVideo" href="http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1614737"Michael Jackson's Video Legacy/a /li /ul bRelated Photos/b ul li a type="relatedFlipbook" href="http://www.mtv.com/photos/?fid=1614745"Michael Jackson: A Life In Photos/a /li li a type="relatedFlipbook" href="http://www.mtv.com/photos/?fid=1614778"Michael Jackson: A Fashion Icon/a /li li a type="relatedFlipbook" href="http://www.mtv.com/photos/?fid=1614753"Fans Mourn The Loss Of Music Icon Michael Jackson/a /li li a type="relatedFlipbook" href="http://www.mtv.com/photos/?fid=1614797"Michael Jackson's Greatest MTV Moments/a /li /ul bRelated Artists/b ul li a type="relatedArtist" href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/jackson_michael/artist.jhtml"Michael Jackson/a /li /ulimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MTVNewsLatest/~4/O1Ze6FxlZMo" height="1" width="1"/
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26th June 2009, 10:56 PM
President Obama Sends Condolences To Michael Jackson's Family, Fans
