Comments on: Did Toyota Plant a Wall Street Journal Story? http://www.toyotapedia.org/2010/07/19/did-toyota-plant-a-wall-street-journal-story/ Toyota news, reviews, videos and pictures. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:45:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jason http://www.toyotapedia.org/2010/07/19/did-toyota-plant-a-wall-street-journal-story/comment-page-1/#comment-759 Jason Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:32:21 +0000 http://www.toyotapedia.org/?p=676#comment-759 I think the accusation that Toyota "planted" a story is a political move by NHTSA. Ray LaHood has demonstrated that he's not above playing politics with Toyota...he's said that people should "stop driving" their Toyotas, that he's going to "hold Toyota's feet to the fire," that he would have fined them "billions," etc. Here's how I think it went down: NHTSA didn't want the public to find out that Toyota is essentially off the hook. Instead, they wanted to continue the investigation permanently until they can't possibly put it off any longer...then release some long report that tries to bury this revelation. Besides, let's be honest for a moment: How dumb does a journalist have to be to print a story that's handed to them by a major corporation? There's no chance that the WSJ ran this without checking with sources at NHTSA...it's just more crappy Chicago politics. I think the accusation that Toyota “planted” a story is a political move by NHTSA. Ray LaHood has demonstrated that he’s not above playing politics with Toyota…he’s said that people should “stop driving” their Toyotas, that he’s going to “hold Toyota’s feet to the fire,” that he would have fined them “billions,” etc.

Here’s how I think it went down: NHTSA didn’t want the public to find out that Toyota is essentially off the hook. Instead, they wanted to continue the investigation permanently until they can’t possibly put it off any longer…then release some long report that tries to bury this revelation.

Besides, let’s be honest for a moment: How dumb does a journalist have to be to print a story that’s handed to them by a major corporation? There’s no chance that the WSJ ran this without checking with sources at NHTSA…it’s just more crappy Chicago politics.

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