The Real Crimes of Martha Stewart

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Friday, January 23, 2004 | MEGHAN COX GURDON

[presidio9]

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, we are here today in the Court of Public Opinion to hear of heinous crimes committed by Martha Stewart, the Dictator of Domesticity. I ask you to set aside any old-fashioned prejudices you may have in favor of self-improvement, and forget any qualms you have about blaming a complete stranger for your own feelings of inferiority.

[presidio9]

It's almost impossible to tell all the facts about a case by what you read in the newspapers. Reporters aren't lawyers and their audiences aren't lawyers, either.

You're telling me this? Read the charges yourself before giving your unimformed opinion. They are pretty clear. All you are doing is repeating media spin talking points.

[exmarine]

If greed were a crime, 90% of America would be in jail.

[exmarine]

I believe many Americans are jumping on the prosecutorial bandwagon because they ENVY Martha. Is greed worse than envy. Nah.

[presidio9]

Easy. They were investingating a possbile crime, and rather than cooperate with them she lied to them and conspired with others to deceive them.

OK Perry Mason, how exactly can you "prove" that I lied when I said I was innocent of insider treading when you can't prove I am guilty of insider trading?

[AbsoluteJustice]

I am a former Marine such as you and I bet you can say this as well.......I envy no person on this planet. I have a Marine metality that noone is better then me LOL.

ENVY ME!!!!!
:)

[leprechaun9]

I believe the legal pursuit is motivated by a well connected person who was not given the insider information and lost a big sum of money. That well connected person is similar to the Florida Persecutor who is pressing Rush!

[Orange1998]

Greed is good right!

Her actions were caused by greed. It's not what she did before the sale it's what she did to cover her actions.

[exmarine]

So, what does that have to do with my general statement? Is is true or not? I didn't realize one had to be perfect to make a perfectly valid and true general observation about Americans. Apparently, it hit a nerve eh?

[Reelect President Dubya]

The real Wall Street crooks got away clean.

Martha is just a token offering to the shrieking peasants packed inside the Colliseum.

[exmarine]

I didn't say greed was good - I meant that greed is quite common in this country although 90% may be a little high). Affluence breeds greed, and we are an affluent country.

[Orange1998]

This is dumb. It shows the government can persecute anyone they want anytime they want.

It happens all the time. If you get the right person mad it could come back to haunt you.

[ErnBatavia]

And her line of cookware and home furnishings at KMart is of excellent quality and a very good value.

I'll bet the shareholders of her company would like to wring her neck. Her obfuscation cost them, bigtime.

[exmarine]

The country is rife with violent crime, drug use, corrupt govt. official, over-the-top obsession with everything sexual, child molestors, etc., yet people are concerned about one rich woman who may have lied about a transaction and may or may not have known that her trade amounted to a crime. I just don't think it's important.

[Wallace T.]

Martha Stewart is a Democrat, a donor to that party's candidates, who was shown in photo-ops with Hillary and Bill Clinton. There was also a rumor that Ms. Stewart may have been another conquest of der Slickmeister. That her products mainly appeal to conservatively inclined housewives is just an incidental. Actors cast as heroic soldiers, cops, spies, etc. are liberals or leftists: Harrison Ford and Alec Baldwin come to mind.

The main motivation behind her prosecution is a political one. The GOP's Federal prosecutors go after Martha Stewart; the Democrats' Palm Beach County, Florida, prosecutors go after Rush Limbaugh. I am not crazy about this stuff, but at least the Republicans are not acting like the Marquis of Queensbury against the Democrats' street fighting thugs.

[MeekOneGOP]

I could care less if she were living in a 1 BR shack in lower Louisiana. If she broke the law she broke the law and she deserves to serve time.

[raybbr]

Surely, you don't think that no officer of any company does not act on insider information? They all do it. I bet an audit of every company in the stock market would reveal many such instances. Stewart is being scapegoated to hide the fact that this goes on on a regular basis and the feds don't want to bring down the officers of the major companies.

[daviddennis]

I'm wondering that myself, and wondering if anyone besides us even read the article :-).

I thought it was pretty funny, and made an excellent point to boot.

D

[presidio9]

I'll bet the shareholders of her company would like to wring her neck. Her obfuscation cost them, bigtime.

They sould want to wring the neck of the Feds who trumped up this charge on her. Martha Stewart Omnimedia was rebounding when it became clear that she was not going to be charged for insider trading. It crashed after they cooked up this bogus charge. It will explode when she is aquitted.

And, no, I do not own any shares myself.

[RebelBanker]

A victimless crime

So what do you consider the poor schmucks who buy that stock at an inflated price, not having the insider knowledge that it is about to crash and burn?

[presidio9]

I did. I just like talking about this case. I am amazed at how flippant people's attitudes are about it.