Ayn Rand on the Fake Media

I have been rereading Atlas Shrugged, and I have reached the chapter, "This is John Galt Speaking,"  in which John Galt makes his grand speech.  I noticed a passage on page 916 of the Signet edition, a few pages before the speech, that describes the media in the Atlas Shrugged world right after Hank Rearden disappears.  The description sounds like the media in today's America.  As a child Rand had lived under Soviet totalitarianism, and the media in today's America likely has much in common with the USSR's media, which is likely the model for this description:

It was strange, she thought, to obtain news by means of nothing but denials, as if existence had ceased, facts had vanished, and only the frantic negatives uttered by officials and columnists gave any clue to the reality they were denying.  'It is not true that the Miller Steel Foundry of New Jersey has gone out of business.'  'It is not true that the Jansen Motor Company of Michigan has closed its doors. 'It is a vicious, anti-social lie that the manufacturers of steel products are collapsing under the threat of a steel shortage.  There is no reason to expect a steel shortage.' 'It is a slanderous, unfounded rumor that a Steel Unification Plan had been in the making and that it had been favored by Mr. Orren Boyle.  Mr. Boyle's attorney has issued an emphatic denial and has assured the press that Mr. Boyle is now vehemently opposed to any such plan.  Mr. Boyle, at the moment is suffering from a nervous breakdown.'  But some news could be witnessed in the streets of New York...