The world is populated with good, honest people, and we can all sleep peacefully at night. It is easier to think that, but it is sadly not the truth. There are evil men in the world, and they often try to hide what they do. Free persons have an obligation to themselves to find out what is what about the topics that concern them. This takes work, but there is no getting around it.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Although we would rather think that athletes or politicians are blameless and good, somebody to cheer for, that is not always the case. Of course, there are genuine criticisms, and then there are smears. But we will never be able to distinguish between a smear and a justified criticism without doing a little homework, a little digging around in books or magazines at the library, and bouncing our thoughts and concerns off of our friends. Without a little hard work, we will never be more than sheep. Just as it is easier to sit at home and think that all is right with the world, it is easier to dismiss all criticisms of public figures out of hand.