In the 1992 example cited, the candidate with the high unfavorables was G.H.W. Bush - and the only reason Bush lost was the third party bid by populist saboteur Ross Perot. I am not a Trump supporter, but this flood of “polling as news” is obviously designed to undermine his candidacy. If they destroy Trump, Cruz will be next in their sights.
Cruz is already in there sights, they wanted him to win Iowa because they can still say that they (the media) are still in control.
Iowa was a power play between the media and Trump
If Trump won, we would have won the narrative that the establishment media was garbage.
But we lost, we like the establishment media telling us who to vote for, what to think, etc