A generation ago the major global authority was Time magazine, like CNN an American pioneer in the diffusion of news. In both cases it is sheer coverage that matters, the sense encouraged in the consumer that what is served up before his eyes has been put there by an all-knowing, wisely experienced, and tremendously influential authority of some sort. Most important is the feeling that what isn't there to be seen or commented on either does not exist or does not matter if it does. In short, this is a literal instance of contemporary history in the making. Let me try to explain what I think he means.
Reality is a confusing, complex dynamic of events, processes, personalities.
Consider as an example King Hussein's death, the final chapter in one man's life. So far as the presentation of Jordan in the media prior to Hussein's death is concerned, it is safe to say that none of these facts was given much prominence, although some may have been mentioned in passing in accounts of the Middle East peace process. In other words, the local context was totally removed. Very little, if anything, of Jordan's history as a country was referred to. Without knowing it, the American spectator was given a false context about Hussein and Jordan, Arabs, Muslims, and others, and in the process encouraged to regard the history of Jordan and its king as essentially unravelled, simplified, reduced from and cleansed of all its density and gravity to the status of a dignified funeral attended by a lot of world leaders, especially Americans and Israelis.