America’s Public Lynching of Toyota

As I watch a very public trial of the foreign car maker Toyota, I can’t help but to feel it’s all just a little too surreal.

It certainly appears to be a public relations nightmare for the Japanese owned company.

The reason the car maker can’t control the chatter is because of the Internet.

Angry Bloggers and blog commenting initiated this fire and continue to control the situation.

In fact, there has been so much chatter that the head of Toyota in the United States has been called into testify in front of the American Congress.

In the past, if a company had a public relations nightmare which needed to be controlled they would just buy off the media. If they paid them enough, the media would not run the stories anymore or even rewrite the story to change public opinion.

Advancements in technology coupled with the widespread use of the Internet has changed the rules. The American Media is no longer our only source of information. The stories can not be re-written or shut down.

Never before has public opinion been held in such high regard.

The question now is…… what will be the outcome?

Is America unfairly persecuting this once highly regarded company for the wrong reasons?

Are we worried about the safety of drivers or are we publicly lynching this company because it’s a foreign competitor who successfully became the world’s largest auto maker. Would we treat an American car maker the same way?

What country holds most of America’s debt? Could it be Japan?