The good old days was way back when there were self-proclaimed Democratic and Republican newspapers who announced their preference on the front page.
When the mass media started pretending they were “objective”, they became shameless liars and cynical propagandists.
The “old” approach is currently used in England—the media does not hide who they are (except for the dirt-bag BBC, of course).
That’s going back to the days of Martin Van Buren...