9/26

I don't like Ayn Rand or her writing, but some of what she said in The Fountainhead reinforced my preexisting conception of the media.  Taking advantage of freedom of speech, the media has achieved immense power in the United States.  Among many other things, the media decides who is worthy of becoming president, the media decides what should be popular, and the media decides what most people think. 
The idea that the media determines who or what should be popular is seen in The Fountainhead where Ellsworth Toohey and his friends decide to make certain mediocre individuals very rich - simply by exerting their enormous influence over the public.  Most people would think the work of these individuals to be poor, but Toohey’s control over the press allows him to manipulate what others believe.
 This is very much present in today’s society, especially in presidential campaigns where various (supposedly impartial) news agencies introduce (but really endorse) candidates.  News agencies have the ability to raise candidates from obscurity to potential Presidents of the United States – take Barack Obama, for example, or Mitt Romney.  Nobody had really ever heard of these people or would consider them as seriously having a chance at the presidency.  But, through the power of the media, Obama and Romney have become the top contenders due to popularity within the media. 
Through the media, we have developed a two party system: a system of Republicans and Democrats who can’t agree on a thing, except that no third party should be allowed an important role in government.  Although freedom of speech is a much cherished right, the media is allowed to broadcast lies (Such as FOX News, which, incidentally, isn’t allowed a Canadian national branch because the Canadians have laws that prevent people from broadcasting lies as news) as news, which can distort people’s opinions regarding all sorts of matters.