Some of the outrageous comments made by Martha Stewart at and immediately after her sentencing:
"What was a small personal matter became over the last two years an almost fatal circus event of unprecedented proportions."
Almost fatal? Unprecedented? Small and personal? She traded a large volume of publicly traded stock on inside information. That is not small and personal. It is public, substantial and financial. But hardly fatal, unless she's threatening suicide. And it is nothing close to being unprecedented, is it Michael? Or Ivan?
"I have been choked and almost suffocated to death during that time, all the while more concerned about the well-being of others than for myself, or hurt for them and for their losses than for my own, more worried for their futures than the future of Martha Stewart, the person."
Again with the death references? This was not life and death; it was money, money, money. Even now, it's not life or death. It's five months at a prison camp. And this business about caring more for others than herself? Bullshit. When one is hoping for leniency, the last thing one should do is insult the judge's intelligence, which is what she did with that comment.
"Perhaps all of you out there can continue to show your support by subscribing to our magazines, by buying our products, by encouraging our advertisers to come back in full force to our magazines."
That was crass and tacky. In the home and garden arena, I'm more in the market for classy and tactful. Had I known that Martha Stewart was inherently crass and tacky, I might have looked more critically at her home and garden ideas from the beginning. I certainly will now.
"And I don't want to use this as a sales pitch for my company but we love that company, we worked so hard on that company and we really think it merits great attention from the American public."
That sounds like a sales pitch, biotch.
"There are many, many good people who have gone to prison. Look at Nelson Mandela."
The parallel must be so obvious that I just can't see it. But from now on, when I think of civil rights leaders jailed for political beliefs, I will think of Martha Stewart, too.
"I didn't go and cheat the little people. I just didn't do that. We're all little people. I didn't cheat anybody out of anything."
Actually, that's exactly what she did. It is a statistical likelihood that those buyers who got matched up with her sell order(s) included little people, or at least people acting for the benefit of little people. And they didn't know about the unannounced news that would devalue their purchase of ImClone Systems Inc. stock in an instant. But Martha knew. And she knew she wasn't allowed to trade on that sort of information. That is cheating. It is cheating the little people. It's exactly what she did.
Five months in the hole is fair. But I would feel better if the sentence could be notched up just a week, or even a day, because of her arrogance. That way, on the day she would otherwise get out, the warden could stroll over to her cell and say "Today was going to have been your last day here, but you had to go and shoot your mouth off. Think about that tonight as you spend another night behind bars. And next time, don't be such a bitch."
As it was, the judge's terse parting shot will have to do:
"I believe that you have suffered, and will continue to suffer, enough," the judge said.
I've heard pieces of this speech over the last day or so, and keep cringing. The part that hurts me the most is the Nelson Mandela comment. Where does she get off putting herself in the same league? Am I missing something entirely?
Posted by: Cow | July 19, 2004 at 13:49