Whistle-blowers are often disliked, even when people realize that they are right. That is a point made by this NYT article by Alina Tugend:

Most of us say we admire people who stand up for what’s right (or what is eventually shown to be right), especially when they are strong enough to stick to their guns in the face of strenuous opposition.

But again, research shows that’s not necessarily true. In “When Groups are Wrong and Deviants are Right,” published last year in The European Journal of Social Psychology, Australian academics argue that group members are often hostile to people who buck conformity, even if the members later agree with the dissenter. Even when, say, a whistle-blower may prove to be correct, she is not always admired or accepted back into the fold, the academics found.