I think they mean this: Toyota “ate it” (an idiom meaning to take losses) in the press by having bad stories written about them. These stories were written for a reason. This reason was not that Toyota deserving those stories, but that Toyota’s competition encouraged those stories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_unintended_acceleration
Occam's razer points to people just hitting the wrong pedal or people's floor mats getting stuck.
The reason Toyota ate it in the press for this was competitive.