It reads like a pretty standard political sketch to me.

I've read it twice and can't see your point. Things like what? The speech or this coverage of it?
To paraphrase Alisdair Gray, the media is the cake which bakes and eats itself: the politicians learn that media cover affects public perception, so lay on events tailored to appeal to the media (isn't that Sarah Brown's line of work?), the media are then determined to show that they see through these fripperies and report accordingly.

...you may have missed some of the fairly heavy irony being deployed.

There's obviously more detail in Reeta Chakrabati's report than was shown on TV but nothing in it strikes me as being at odds with what I saw.

...but she's no Simon Hoggart. I've heard This reporter on Newsbeat and she's ok.

...as well.
What you could do when you next have a slack hour is hang the bastards who make Jeremy Kyle, sell your house, auction my cat and those smug buggers who inhabit BBC2 at 6.30.
PS I know Kyle is on ITV but lets not split hairs eh?