I was completely disgusted with the play that the Detroit auto show received ("And The Winners Are / Detroit Auto Show Proves Which Carmakers Will Be the Strongest in the Near Future," Jan. 15).

Headlining the bottom half of the page was "And The Winners Are," and immediately after, positioned as if to complete the headline, was a picture of a Toyota emblem, adorned nicely as if on the hood of a fancy car.

However, upon reading the article, the first five paragraphs detail how Ford is making great strides.

OK, so what about Toyota? Well, the article states that with only two exceptions, "its production models didn't generate a lot of excitement at the auto show," directly contradicting the message that the play of the story strongly suggests.

Any casual reader who just glances at headlines, and there are many such folks, would come away with a completely false impression, and I strongly believe the intent to deceive was deliberate. Otherwise, why wasn't a Ford emblem shown?

This type of coverage is a blatant example of the kind of misrepresentative media favor that foreign auto companies, and Toyota in particular, have enjoyed for decades. With this sort of media favor, it's no wonder domestic automakers have had difficulty competing, despite the fact that on balance the domestic cars are of equal or in many cases better quality.

A half century ago, President Kennedy then President Johnson scolded the steel industry for raising prices ... so years later they moved offshore?

Now President Obama has scolded the banks for fat paychecks, pushing them in the same direction? Nonsense. Just where are they going to go that pays any where near the executive compensation in this country? Nowhere.

Steel didn't leave because of fears of price controls, a cause and effect for which the author offers absolutely no evidence. Steel left for the same reasons toys, consumer electronics, textiles, computers, customer service, autos and any other industry you can think of left -- cheaper labor, land, capital, material and/or government subsidies.

I am not surprised that a paranoid conservative pundit would make up silly stuff like the Jan. 9 Business Forum: "Will Financial Services Be Pushed Offshore?" to slam a president he hates. But why print it?

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