Chozick was one of the star political reporters for years. You can see her view of politics and political coverage: it is a grand epic requiring politicians well-suited to be cast in the role of hero, where performance is everything.
Rudy being filmed walking the streets on 9/11, or Cuomo being on cable news confidently saying things, represents both the apogee and the limit of politics. That is what politics is for. There is little need to ask why Rudy was on the streets instead of in his command center, or what Cuomo was doing when he wasn't performing. Only dorks would care about that stuff.
Most importantly, in The Politics Show, it is the stars of that show who are the protagonists, not the voters. We exist merely to watch, the politicians to perform, and the press to craft the narrative around that. What they actually do, what their policies do, is irrelevant.
I actually think political coverage is less like this now (it has other flaws), but it was journalism from 2000 to 2016