I've been thinking about this a lot lately..

I think the educational system has had a political element for years. It is due to the union involvement with teachers, for one thing. I haven't been in school for many years but when I went, I could tell the difference between the newer and younger teachers and the ones who were close to retirement. The older teachers taught their course, the younger ones used their course to shape opinions. This first happened to me in 1968, and continued on through the early 70s. The media has proven that it is in the bag for the administration and leans left generally, even they will admit that they lean left. But if the political agenda is allowed to show in their reporting, then they are no longer functioning as the free press they are meant to be. It's been a long time since anyone pursued a story to get to the truth regardless of what the truth was. Now, they manufacture truth and report the facts that support that truth. I don't know if they qualify as branches of government in their influence, but they certainly qualify as indoctrinators of the public. When people don't get unbiased facts, they are powerless in every situation, including the ballot box.

Unfortunately there will always be a collection of power in the hands of one undeniable force: Human Stupidity. More on your point, though, we don't yet have to worry about media, because media does not have a united front. Different outlets are devoted to different political parties. As for education, not only are our educators not on the same political page with one another as well, they are largely ineffectual in this country. Sudents are not listening to their teachers enough for that to be a major influence. Television, both news and entertainment, have a bigger effect on the public than educators, and as noted earlier, the varied ideas spread through the media cannot create an "accumulation of power" for anyone or any one body. The media ends up just that: a medium for the transmission of ideas, not a body of power itself. As long as all media outlets are not controlled by the same body we shoud be fine and that does not seem to be happening.