Martha Stewart

[davefoc]

My opiniion:

I kind of like her. I like women who can go without their makeup every now and then. I like women who like boats and the outdoors. I also like people who are in to stuff even if they are a little obsessed about it. I like the fact that she seems pleasant with guests and that on occasion she can laugh at herself.

I also like the fact that she is hugely successful and as shown a lot of initiatve to establish her company.

Still, Martha, has shown herself to be a little mean at times, I don't remember the details but there have been various stories about her tight fisted ways with her employees. And then there was the thing where she lied about her ex-husband being disabled when he wasn't or something and he sued and she had to withdraw the statment and admit that she lied.

And there's the problem that she got herself into here. She almost certainly got some illegal insider advice to sell some of her Imclone stock before some bad news was announced and then she lied about it to the feds. Not very nice, not very smart and not very ethical.

But still, couldn't this have all been worked out? The story is that the feds wanted her to resign from her company and she wouldn't do it. If that's true it looks to me like the feds went too far. This hurts a lot of shareholders and people who just like Martha and seems unnesscissarily harsh to me. A fine, a little ambiguous mea culpa, a suspended sentence, a promise that she won't do it again and a little cooperation on her part seems about right to me. If she was offered that deal then she was an idiot not to take it. If the feds wanted much more than that then it looks like they were a bunch of bureaucrats trying to make names for themselves at Martha's expense.

 

[Roadtoad]

Lots of women, Dave, have become successful without becoming brutal. Lots of women have become great outdoorpeople without becoming mean. Lots of women become wealthy without cheating. There are intelligent, wise, clever women (most of them, actually), and most of them do not choose to do harm to others.

I agree, the Feds are going too far in pushing for her removal from leading her own company. I think Martha Stewart Omnivision should be allowed to fall on its face of its own accord.

 

[Monketi Ghost]

A celebrity who is being targeted to serve as "an example" to others. She is being charged with lying about committing a crime, but she is not being charged with the crime she allegedly lied about committing.

As soon as anyone figures that out, I'd like to hear the rationalization...

If she had committed a crime, she'd have been charged for doing so. She did not commit any crime I'm aware of.

 

[Hazelip]

If she had committed a crime, she'd have been charged for doing so. She did not commit any crime I'm aware of.

If not a crime of some kind, then what, praytell, is she being charged with?

 

[Fade]

If not a crime of some kind, then what, praytell, is she being charged with?

Lying about insider trading, I think. I didn't follow too closely.

 

[Roadtoad]

Lying about insider trading, I think. I didn't follow too closely.

I did follow closely, and I'm more confused than you are, Fade. I'll be damned if I can figure this one out.

She blocked much of the prosecution in this case, mainly because she wouldn't roll over on people. She kept her mouth shut, which, the last time I checked, was still Constitutional. Since she wasn't going to make it easy for the Feds, they've decided to punish her.

Personally, I think she's dirty as hell, but there's no way I could ever vote that way if I were on the jury. Not based on the evidence I see.

 

[davefoc]

First, the feds are going after her for insider trading in civil courts. This case has been put on hold pending the outcome of the criminal case against her.

Secondly, the case against her is obstruction of justice for lying and forging records to protect her lie. There are alleged to be forged phone records as evidence of this.

As to roadtoad's assertions about her meanness, I don't doubt that she's not the nicest person. I am only vaguely familiar with the claims against her in that regard, but I certainly have read some stuff that made me think she wasn't the nicest person around. When I said I liked her, I meant that I enjoyed her public personna in her programs. Even there I'm not a regular viewer and just have a view based on landing on her shows for a while during channel surfing.