automotive comspiratory hypothesis?

I had the TV on as white noise yesterday while I was trying to put my kid to bed, and heard something I thought was interesting. I'm not putting any stock into it because I don't know enough about it to say so, but here's a theory that I thought could make for some discussion that will, no doubt, be bi-partisan in nature.

The US Government is calling for the release of recall information from Toyota, and there are factions within that are demanding massive fines and other such punishment for their production discrepancies these last few weeks.

Could the government's interest be a little deeper than the protection of its people? I mean, look at it this way: The Government owns GM and Chrysler, direct competitors of Toyota, not to mention the fact that the Toyota factories in the US are NOT manned by UAW laborers, a fairly substantial partner with the govt. in this whole automotive fiasco.

Wouldn't driving Toyota into financial difficulties and browbeating their reputation into the ground serve to bolster the portfolios of the companies that are now government owned? Not only would it line the pockets of the people whose hands are dirty, but they could also say "Look what we did with these failing car companies!"

Again, I'm not heading for a foil hat here, but it looks pretty interesting in the right kind of light. 

^i lol'd.

There is an obvious push by the lamestream media to publish as many stories about this as possible...

It's all over the news here too.

Sign me up for the tinfoil hat club, I had the same thought when this all started, although brakes and accelerators are kind of important. 

Eh, I see connection, but that would require a chain of unlikely events in order to justify the conclusion.

Which applies to most conspiracy theories :P

This issue aside, I think at the most it serves as a nice distraction from weightier matters facing Uncle Sam. I think that's what I file most conspiracies under-distraction. Would you rather your wife be concerned at some outlandish theory that you are in reality a demon worshipping cannibal than the harsh reality that youre cheating on her?

SSOK wrote: Although I wouldnt mind Government sponsered Toyota hating. Its about time, IMO, that we stop throwing our money at Japan.... (FYI, I know Toyota has a few automotive plants and everyone thinks it makes shipping money away acceptable, but it doesnt)

Keeping money in the US for the sake of keeping money in the US, especially when it is government sponsored, is just about the worst economic policy that is actually advocated by anyone.

Haha, I was thinking about this before.

I love a good conspiracy.

I did actually think about the possibility of this conspiracy but since there's no real evidence of it I don't consider it likely. It wouldn't surprise me if it came out that it was a plot to bring the American companies back since our politicians are getting more corrupt every day. That said, brake failures and sticky gas pedals are definitely news-worthy recalls. Especially when they happen so close together. There are some serious manufacturing issues with Toyota right now and they need to make sure that doesn't happen again. I believe they were fairly quick to ship replacement parts and whatnot so that's good but quality control on those things needs to be improved.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2010/02/22/possible-orchestration-anti-toyota-campaign-makes-dot-spokespersons-acor