Topic: Media Research Center
There's a new conspiracy making the rounds: President Obama forced the recall of millions of Toyota vehicles in order to tarnish the competition and boost General Motors and Chrysler vehicles, which the government is bailing out.
No, really.
A Jan. 29 MRC Business & Media Institute article by Jeff Poor approvingly highlighted the remarks of Republican Rep. Jeff Sessions hinting at such a conspiracy:
Sessions expressed his concern over that possibility and noted the amount of money the federal government had recently pumped into GMAC, the auto financing arm of General Motors.
“Well, you know – we were in until late last night and I hadn’t heard that,” Sessions said. “I worry about those kind of things. I worry about Ford working hard and having to compete against the federal government. With an unlimited – they just gave $3 billion more to GMAC. The President’s got to be careful here. He can not be playing politics and union politics or regional politics with the economy of this country.”
Since Toyota (NYSE:TM) announced the recall, the shares of the auto manufacturer have dropped more than 15 percent in the last seven trading sessions, down $2.10 on Jan. 28 after a $7.01 slide the day before.
Roger Hedgecock followed up by wholeheartedly embracing the conspiracy in his Feb. 1 WorldNetDaily column:
Disclosure: My family drives Toyota cars (a Prius and a Lexus SUV), and we have never had a problem with these excellent products. On our cars (and every other Toyota vehicle I've seen), the floor mats are firmly secured by hooks and cannot interfere with the gas pedal. And the gas pedal works just as it should – press down and the car moves faster. Ease up and the car slowly decelerates.
Nonetheless, Toyota faces a perfect storm from SUA. But is government "greed" a factor here? As a co-owner of Toyota rivals GM and Chrysler, is the Obama administration and its jihad against Toyota "consumer protection" or revenge against a successful, non-union, red state based rival? Given what Rahm Emanuel said about crisis as an opportunity to "advance the agenda," this question deserves closer attention.[...]
A year ago, Toyota was riding high. With non-union manufacturing plants in Georgia, Texas, Mississippi, Kentucky and Indiana, Toyota made the most popular and most highly regarded vehicles in the U.S. Rivals GM and Chrysler were imploding, and the president stepped in with massive taxpayer cash infusions and took over these companies as joint ventures between the federal government and the UAW.
Hedgecock goes on to falsly claim that the Pontiac Vibe is not on the recall list, even though it's a twin of the recalled Toyota Matrix. In fact, the Vibe is on the NHTSA recall list.
Given that one of Hedgecock's cars (the Prius) is on the recall list, we wonder if he will refuse to get it fixed just to spite Obama. Does he drive the Prius himself, or does he make his wife or child drive it?
He's also curiously mum about the fact that at least 24 deaths and hundreds of injuries are connected to the Toyota problems -- sticky accelerators and accelerators getting trapped under floor mats.
Is Hedgecock so conspiratorial that he's willing to put himself and his family at risk of injury just to prove a point? We shall see.
