I have to say, I feel sorry for Martha Stewart - - I also have to say that the media is just way too excited about her going behind bars today. Somehow, she snuck in underneath the media’s nose this morning, and I think that is great. They’ve been camped out there all week like a bunch of rubberneckers. The news has been full of women who have been to that prison, where only 5% of the population are awhite collar criminals. The rest of them are narcotics and violent crimes.
Yea, Martha broke the law. Yea, she needs to pay consequences like anyone else would have to. She’s not above the law just because she knows how to fold a napkin, and has made millions doing it. But 5 months in a prison where the guard to prisoner ratio is 500:1 and the majority of insiders are the dredge of society . . I don’t know. I just don’t think her crime is worth all that.
I have no special love for Martha Stewart. I have no disdain for her, either. I’m ambivalent, really. I just feel sorry for her this morning, is all. Never having been in prison (No, really, I haven’t) - I can’t even begin to comprehend what she’s going through, mentally.
She’ll either have that place painted pink by the end of her term . . . or she’ll just turn inside of herself for the next 5 months, and bear her responsibility. It’s gotta suck.
I...
8:24 am on October 8th, 2004
I agree with you, Lisa - - the media is a circus gone bad. Let her do what she has to do and just leave her alone. I think it would be absolutely terrifying to go to prison and they don’t care what she is already going through - - they just want ratings.
8:59 am on October 8th, 2004
Agreed. But the prison she’s in is not one of the ones where they put hardcore criminals. Here fellow inmates are also white collar criminals who represent no danger to others. There aren’t even fences on the grounds. She’ll be put out by the inconvenience, for sure, but her safety is hardly in jeopardy.
9:05 am on October 8th, 2004
I don’t know, John - I watched a few interviews last night given by women who had spent time in the very same prison. One woman in for white collar crimes (tax evasion) said that she shared a cell with someone who murdered her husband. They interviewed a prison guard there who said only 5% of the population in that prison are white color criminals.
I dunno - I still feel sorry for her.
10:24 am on October 8th, 2004
I, too, feel sorry for Martha as well. I feel much like you do.
I think she is a pawn in a big game. Heck, the Enron guys hurt a lot more people and they got off free as a bird — at least the head guy did anyway. It’s wrong and certainly not FAIR.
I saw Martha went to the beach yesterday and swam. How painful to have to walk away from all you love for five months…
10:40 am on October 8th, 2004
It certainly is ridiculous. Does anyone feel safer that she is off the streets?
Not to sound cold, but what a waste of taxpayer dollars.
12:06 pm on October 8th, 2004
I agree.
My mother is a huge Martha Stewart fan.
I’m like you…I don’t like or dislike.
I like that she likes/has Chow-chows, though.
The media takes everything to such extreme.
It’s sad.
Though I am a news junkie.
And I can’t wait until the debate tonight!
Ciao!
12:14 pm on October 8th, 2004
I completely agree. I feel sorry for her and I don’t think she should have to do time for her offense. It seems like extreme overkill.
12:45 pm on October 8th, 2004
I have no opinion one way or another about Martha as a person, there are so few area’s where her empire overlaps with my interests. (I do have a set of Martha xmas lights)
However, She was found guilty, she waived her right to apeal and so just like anyone else she has to conform to her sentance. She may be guilty of a white collar crime where the victims are obscured but do you really suggest that such crimes go unpunished? Personally I think she was lucky to have not been more severly treated by the courts, she committed insider dealership, a cardinal sin in the financial business. It is one thing if she was an innocent who didn’t know the rules, but she was a member of the NYSE what she did was totally reprehensable. It would be like a doctor breaching the patient / doctor privilages for personal profit.
I do not feel sorry for her with regard to the conditions of the prison… its a prison, thats where we send people who have done something bad, it’s not supposed to be nice. I only hope that if I am ever convicted of a crime you will all be as concerned about my wellfare.
Nor do I have any sympathy for her with regard to the media coverage she is getting, she is a public figure who has built her career on the back of that media exposure, the door swings both ways.
Redfred
1:06 am on October 9th, 2004
She was not charged with insider trading.
She was convicted of not being able to prove that she’d told the truth — even though not under oath — to a federal agent.