The press were the same with Steve Kean, I remember being on the way to an away game listening to furious Blackburn fans ringing the BBC demanding to know why they were staunchly defending him.
It comes down to two things imo. They want to be seen to provide balance (this is true of something like Total Sport). Except it's not balance, because if you have two pro callers and two anti callers, that's not doing anything other than providing idiots with far more coverage than they deserve.
And none of them want to be seen to be saying "this person should lose their job" because they know that at some point, they'll probably end up sat next to them for some TV coverage or other. Very commendable, unfortunately it makes them not fit for purpose.