In the Bush years he was cool. In the Obama years he wasn't cool. Around 2016 he became a pariah. The press is most often aligned with the interests of the party and is a fair-weather-friend at best.
Slight rant: People just get enamored with the story of the dark horse "journalist" fighting against the odds to expose corruption. In reality, the NY Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Pro Publica have all exposed vastly more salient information and done it all ethically and faced down all legal challenges in US courts and won.