To shoot or kill the messenger is to punish the bearer of bad news, even though the person has done no more than deliver the information. While the messenger is not the cause of the bad tidings, he or she is the one within reach. The phrase has been offered by the news media as an explanation for public hostility to them; the media merely report bad news, but the public blames them for it.

The concept of "shooting the messenger" comes from Sophocles, the Greek tragic poet who wrote in Antigone (ca. 442 B.C.) "None love the messenger who brings bad tidings."

Interested in digging deep into the stories of other phrases? Check out Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions.