I don't think your reading that correctly. The important point is 'outwardly' and 'well-established Republican media arm'. Overall the Republicans have been vary good about staying on message and even if they don't support a candidate will vary rarely badmouth a fellow republican outside of primary's.
You're probably right about how the sentence should be read. Of course, under that logic, the incident at hand was not "outward," anyway. It was subtle. So, yeah... poor writing.
