, in the wake of Toyota's gas-pedal recall, the Associated Press ran what might as well have been a free advertisement for a marketing effort by government-controlled General Motors:
Is there any substantive difference between the three paragraphs above and the text of a paid ad?
Today, they just did it again, this time for government-controlled Chrysler (what follows is most of the 12:18 p.m. version, which was revised 24 minutes later):
The wire service's 12:42 p.m. revision (subject to further revision) is a bit more formalized, but in its own way just as humorous:
Oh, it's last year's financial troubles that are the problem, not this year's. It couldn't possibly be the assessments by industry watchers that the company is currently in serious trouble. And there's no way customer unease could possibly have anything to do with the fact that the company barely sold 57,000 vehicles in January. No-no-no, it's what happened almost a year ago.
Give. Me. A. Break.
When was the last time the AP, the other wire services, or the establishment media devoted a story exclusively to one of Ford's, Toyota's, Honda's, or Nissan's incentive programs?
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
