I spent a lot of time working around the UK and further afield from around the mid eighties to around ten years of so ago.
The general view of your lot up until the mid nineties was, if ever mentioned, neutral . " Alright club, decent fans, no threat" Same as for us more or less.
That changed with the Hall/Keegan era. For a time, my experience was that you really were very well thought of. If not a second team then we'll liked. I'd say that lasted maybe three years of so. This slowly changed to a mocking attitude at what was seen as the absurdly entitled behaviour of the fans. Even when Robson was in charge this didn't seem to change, despite his own personal popularity.
From then on, that sentiment seemed to be more widespread and stronger. And there was plenty for it to feed on. The latest few months of comical street camping, bellicose abuse of sheet glass, and all the other severely embarrassing behaviour will only have made it worse. That's what constitutes the reason for most of this media coverage. They are looking for a laugh and they always get it. So do we.