Sometimes the messenger must be shot, yes

The fact that everyone thinks something about someone doesn't mean that everyone is right. Quite often actually it is the other way around: people are wrong, have misjudged, have hold on to prejudices (yes, we all have them, it's not the prejudices that make us bad people, really). As such, the one who takes up the mantle of everyone's herald will also be the one caught in the flames when it all backfires. This ain't exactly rocket science, really; it's simple causality.