For that matter, embattled is often used in a context where there's no crime at all involved. A CEO may be embattled because he hasn't been able to turn a company around and the shareholders and board are being restless. In that case, in a sense it's code for on the way out, but only because by the time you get to that point, the handwriting is probably on the wall.

I tried the word "embattled" in Google News. One of the articles that came up was about an embattled tree. Which I'm sure is every bit as guilty as the media suggests.

That, at least, is a response to the actual argument. I disagree: I have never seen a story where "embattled" was used to describe someone the rest of the story led you to believe might be unfairly embattled, and the nice thing about "embattled" is that you do not have to actually prove anything to use it. It's just "I hear lots of people are saying..." dressed up.