I think more than anything this shows that the media has always used the word "hacker" to have criminal connotations. As LouLang mentions, it was used earlier

I think more than anything this shows that the media has always used the word "hacker" to have criminal connotations. As LouLang mentions, it was used earlier within small niches, but the it seems the earliest, and certain the majority uses of it, by press and anyone in the mainstream is negative. Coming from the infosec side of things its still odd to me that developers use the term so much. :)