Not as awful as now and never as blatantly biased and dishonest as now. The media used to operate with a code of ethics and was highly principled and careful not to engage in the politics of personal destruction without ironclad evidence that was verified and reverified and verified again.
Most of the media seems to have no moral compass whatsoever these days.
First Election after Washington.
Jefferson's camp accused President Adams of having a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman
In return, Adams' men called Vice President Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father."
As the slurs piled on, Adams was labeled a fool, a hypocrite, a criminal, and a tyrant, while Jefferson was branded a weakling, an atheist, a libertine, and a coward.
Even Martha Washington succumbed to the propaganda, telling a clergyman that Jefferson was "one of the most detestable of mankind." Mental Floss: Jefferson: The sensitive writer type
Founding Fathers' dirty campaign - CNN