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When talking about why the media treats Tebow the way it does now, it must be remembered that when he was in college the media absolutely adored him and slobbered all over him. He wasn't the least bit "controversial", he was simply The Greatest College Athlete Ever.
He didn't become controversial until he left college and headed for the NFL. Why was that? Why would the media coverage suddenly change? It's not like he did anything different, it's not as it was discovered that he had been home schooled. No, what happened was that there were very legitimate reasons to think he couldn't succeed in the NFL, but because of his humongous fanbase (his Denver uniform instantly became the #1 selling jersey when he was drafted) the people who were skeptical of him reactively took the most extreme opposite approach, which was to deride him and hope that he would fail.
That's what this is about fundamentally about: a backlash against the overwhelming love he recieves. If he wasn't so loved be so many people, there wouldn't nearly as much animosity for him because the critics wouldn't feel the need to push back. Or, if he was unanimously viewed as an elite prospect like Peyton Manning was, people would be much more comfortable with the adoration he recieves.
What's funny is that I've experienced some Tebow whiplash, just in reverse of other people. When he was in college I couldn't stand the attention he recieved and didn't want to hear about him and hardly wanted the Gators to succeed. But then when he started taking flack in the run up to the draft and since, I flipped around and now follow him with some interest and get tired of the overly-negative criticisms of him. So I've gone from a Tebow-h8r to a h8r-h8r. ;)