With Dominique's assistance, Roark dynamites the building. Although he does not need her help, he judges that she is now rid of the belief that the good has no chance at success, and is consequently free to take an active role in aiding him. She pretends to run out of gas in front of Cortlandt, and sends the night watchman to get gas at the nearest service station, one mile away. With no lives endangered, Roark then blows up the building. He turns himself in and says he will speak at the trial.
There is public outrage against the destruction of a housing project. For the first time in his career, Wynand goes against public opinion. He defends Roark in The Banner. Wynand maintains that his newspaper controls public opinion, and that his readers will believe what he wants them to believe. He personally takes charge of the campaign to defend Roark, putting on display his own brilliant journalistic skills in the process. He writes a series of articles describing trials in which innocent men were unjustly convicted by the ignorant bias of society. The Banner recounts the history of those great thinkers persecuted by an uncomprehending public — Socrates, Galileo, Pasteur, and many others. Wynand runs an exposé of the public housing industry: "the graft, the incompetence, the structures erected at five times the cost a private builder would have needed." He puts out the word to his twenty-two newspapers, his magazines, and his newsreels: Defend Roark, demonstrate his innocence, reshape public opinion. But because Roark blew up a housing project for the poor, opinion runs heavily against him. The backlash against his defenders is swift and strong. There is an outcry against Wynand, and circulation drops. The strongest elements of dissent come from Wynand's own public — from the Women's Clubs, the ministers, the mothers, the small shopkeepers. "Roark was almost forgotten in the storm of indignation against Gail Wynand." For several years, the popularity of The Banner had been dropping, as Wynand, inspired by Dominique's presence to display his real values, had killed many of the sentimental pieces adored by his public. Further, Toohey had subtly orchestrated a campaign against Wynand featured in the small but prestigious intellectual magazines. Now, stickers and posters proclaiming, "We Don't Read Wynand," appear on walls and subways across New York City. Many news vendors refuse to display The Banner; they carry it hidden under their counters, to be provided for customers only on request: "The ground had been prepared, the pillars eaten through long ago; the Cortlandt case provided the final impact."
