CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Toyota is catching hell for its faulty gas pedals and the company is reeling. Yet the Cincinnati Enquirer appears to be sleeping through the story, even though Toyota's North American manufacturing headquarters is in the Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper's circulation area. What if this was a Detroit automaker with a problem? Guess here is the Enquirer would be all over the story. The Japanese carmaker's offices in Erlanger, Ky., are about 15 minutes away from the newspaper's offices in downtown Cincinnati. The Toyota factory is in Georgetown, Ky., about an hour's drive from Cincinnati. Yet the Enquirer doesn't seem very interested in devoting resources to cover national news in its backyard. Apparently, it hasn't even assigned a reporter to cover the gas pedal crisis. The Enquirer has broken no stories, nor has it developed any new angles or raised new issues. The newspaper has printed a handful of wire stories, but hasn't jumped full bore into covering the Japanese automaker's woes. The Enquirer -- which is owned by the nation's largest newspaper company -- repeatedly boasts to advertisers and readers it is the dominant news source in the region. But boasts can ring hollow. And perhaps there is a caveat. Maybe the region's largest news gathering organization doesn't want to offend advertisers who sell Toyotas. Maybe it doesn't want to offend a major corporation with a headquarters in Greater Cincinnati. Maybe it lacks enough staff to jump into the story. Or maybe it just doesn't give a damn about a major development occuring in its backyard. Of course, that would mean The Cincinnati Enquirer doesn't want to dig for information. And that would mean the newspaper really doesn't care about the interests of subscribers and readers who own Toyotas and want to know what the heck is happening. And that would mean the Enquirer is in the tank.
