My recollection is different.
When McCain ran in 2000, there were nasty questions about his sanity after having been a POW, and some dirty rumors about his adopted daughter being the result of an affair with an African American woman.
There were comments about his temper, too.
The point is that the liberal media uses their power to influence the political process. McCain was very low on my list of potential candidates but he was selected by the media to be the GOP nominee for the 2008 election. He was the candidate that the media decided would be easiest to defeat at the general election.
The media may have attacked McCain during a prior election, but that was to serve their purposes at the time.