He was unpopular, as you put it, with the State Run Media from the get-go!
Not true. GWB got more favorable treatment in the 2000 election than Al Gore. Much of it Gore deserved for acting like a arrogant idiot but it blows that myth. I also saw some (much less) MSM ripping of Kerry in the 2004 election. ABC Nightline really gave it to Kerry for being a phony and reported he kicked them off his jet.
Yes the MSM is liberal and was brutal on GWB in later years , and treats liberal AA Obama as the return of Christ. The treatment is like day and night.
But GWB brought it on himself, and us. He set himself up to be crusified. Let me give you hints, "WMDs", "Mushroom Clouds over America", "Iraq Oil will pay for reconstruction", "political capital". This was like giving the media a loaded gun and begging them to shoot him, and they did.
Call it Neo-con train-wreck. We cannot let this happen again.