This will smear Toyota because 10,000 local radio stations and 10,000 local newspapers and hundreds of local TV news stations will have lead paragraphs reading:
“FBI... raid... Toyota... automobile... Toyota... recall... dangerous...Congress... Toyota... hearings... Toyota... acceleration.... Toyota.... problem...”
But those same 10,000 local radio stations, newspapers, and TV stations would already have lead paragraphs reading “Toyota... automobile... Toyota... recall... dangerous...Congress... Toyota... hearings... Toyota... acceleration.... Toyota.... problem...”
If there is a legitimate antitrust inquiry into these suppliers, should the FBI/DoJ have held off on these raids because they might generate continued bad press against Toyota?
I guess I just don’t see this as fitting into some grand conspiracy against Toyota.