OK I'll admit it, I had to look up hagiography, but you're right. And of course not just the presidential candidates but the press on the campaign trail, the view of the zoo plane and press row during the conventions, it's now standard during any mass covered event like a convention or the Super Bowl to have some story about how the story is covered. My favorite example of that comes from PJ O'Rourke during the Gulf War when he goes to where all the TV journalists gather to write their stories and finds them pouring through the print accounts and says "you can't do that, everything we write is based on what we see on your shows".
The funniest thing I ever read by him was when he covered the Nick-a-ra-wa election that threw the Sandanista thugs out of power. His discription of the deslolated American symps "The Sandalistas" still put me in stitches.