It spreads out your resources, and it can make you easier to defeat in detail. Some of the steps can be rearranged, other objectives I may have overlooked may be added, but number one on the list should always be the obnoxious media and the reach they give all of the other factions.

People can be pacified much easier when there's a barker off to the side offering up justifications of the actions of others, even when people know it's a load of shit. A huge portion of getting people under control is just throwing an excuse at them to do something and then yelling at them that they're being unreasonable if they open their mouth. That's what the media does. It's the glue that holds everything else together, whether or not it's something people all buy into.