It used to be that "public figures" could be scrutinized harshly, in print media, while private citizens had a certain degree of protection. It would be considered harassment for the paper to write an op-ed about John Q. Doe, store manager at the local Drug-Fix, being bad at his job.
Now, it's worse to be a private citizen, because it's much easier to destroy a private person's "Google resume". I could talk shit about a prominent politician for days and wouldn't have much of an effect on his Google presence, but if I (or anyone) decided to go into "digital hit man" mode on Joe Q. Bloggs, it wouldn't take more than half an hour. Because there's so little content about him, it would be easy to make over 90% of web content about him be negative.
Heck, I don't even want people I don't know to find my Facebook or Twitter page; all it can takes is someone to post a potentially inappropriate photo, or an inappropriately tagged photo of you for your reputation to be destroyed in some circles. Which is why I keep a professional identity on LinkedIn, and obfuscate my other personal online identities (friend's can find me pretty easily).