Free Martha

I'm upset.

Viacom has dropped Martha Stewart's syndicated lifestyle television show, Martha Stewart Living, from its CBS and UPN stations. I, for one, will miss her tips for decorating a little girl's birthday party and for preening rose bushes. She was nominated for a daytime Emmy as best host, for goodness sake. Now, her shows may be “in the can,” but they're going to stay on the shelf.

And for what?

Friday, March 5th, Martha was convicted on four counts (including conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and making false statements) when a jury decided she lied to cover up her sale of ImClone Systems shares on the eve of a negative ruling for its cancer drug Erbitux. What gets me is this: she was never even prosecuted for the very act which precipitated this investigation, the very act which was supposedly so heinous. The act of insider trading. You can't be serious! Give her a fine. Compel her to do community service. But please forget about prison time. And put her show back on the air.

What's really going on here? Could this be a modern day witch hunt? Those who know her say she's difficult and demanding. She beat a lot of men to the punch, went public, and became a corporate billionaire. Is this case about punishing Martha for being not nice and too rich? “Put that woman in her place, will you? Next thing you know we'll have woman running around being stern, getting things done, and making more money than we do. Better not have that. Crucify her!”

Martha did make some mistakes, that's true. For one thing, she spoke to federal investigators. (Plead the fifth, Martha. Don't give them any ammunition to use against you in court.) Yet when it came time to plead her case to the jury, she didn't testify. (Know when to talk and when not to. Very important.)

What else went wrong? Martha might have had better lawyers. I know they're rich and expensive (funny how that always goes hand in hand), but a twenty minute defense and never even allowing Martha to take the stand and defend herself? I'm not so sure this was the most cunning strategy. The defense presented a terse case which can be summed up in one sentence, “Martha's too smart for this.” When Martha appeals, she might consider changing representation and using incompetent counsel as her grounds. The defense never even substantiated their argument that Stewart and her broker, Peter Bacanovic, had an oral agreement to sell ImClone at a preset price. Allowing the two to testify would have allowed them to state this fact under oath to the jury. To tell you the truth, I think the defense got cocky after the securities fraud charge was dropped and forgot to fight for every point.

Lastly, Martha's public relations firm, the Susan Magrino Agency, was worthless. Before she was indicted last summer, Stewart replaced the agency with Citigate Sard Verbinnen, the crisis-management firm that helped Hewlett-Packard's Carly Fiorina win a proxy fight to take over Compaq. After Citigate took charge, Martha did get her message out with interviews and the Internet. For example, within hours of her indictment, Citigate launched the website marthatalks.com which posts notes from fans like me and positive messages from Martha herself. She also appeared with her mother on Larry King Live . Unfortunately, those moves came a little too late.

Okay, so I've admitted that Martha made some mistakes. But I'm one of many fans who sees this as a victimless crime. (Oh, I know, some of you will point to her company's drop in the stock market and argue that she has hurt her stockholders. But her actions did not cause this drop, the frivolous federal prosecution and subsequent felony conviction have caused this drop.)

We fans love Martha, and we don't see what she (possibly) did as worthy of sending her to prison and canceling her television show. I mean, Winona Ryder stole thousands of dollars of merchandise and only received a fine and community service. Since when was lying worse than stealing? (If Martha did, in fact, lie.)

Come on, Viacom. Put Martha back on the air.

It would be a good thing.

March 2004