You're repeating yourself but I get your point.
Thing is the writer's an idiot for saying "...pleasing the media should be his number one priority..." and actually meaning it. Back on Planet Earth the goal is not pleasing the media. I just loved the way Reagan would skip Presidential press briefings and afterward he always had a loud helicopter handy as an excuse for not 'hearing' the questions.
The author doesn't mean it. Put on these glasses (pulls a set of decoder glasses from his pocket and proffers them).
It's actually a pretty funny piece because it isolates that very assumption in order to spatter it with derisive laughter (ours). The delicious part is that 1) Liberals and RINOs won't quite get it, since they believe that's really the number-one priority, but notice that it looks naked and silly stated so simply; and 2) Conservatives get to snigger at the self-importance of the pseudo-journalists, who think they are the real story of this election, and of American and possibly world history.