The Ayn Rand Institute's Robert W. Tracinski has an excellent editorial that puts the Stewart case into perspective: Martha and the Tall Poppies. Excerpt: "Why do so many people hate Martha Stewart? How does a home-decorating expert with a wholesome public persona come to be portrayed as a major cultural villain? [...] There can be only one explanation for this tone of malicious glee. Martha is hated because she's a tall poppy. I have been told that there is an Australian saying: 'You have to cut down the tall poppies.' In other words, anyone who dares to poke his head above the crowd must be attacked, denigrated, and brought down to the common level."
Mark Steyn also weighed in the topic in The Wall Street Journal: Martha Stewart Surviving. Excerpt: "...I can't see Martha Stewart Living going down Evasion Avenue and emerging as MSL or Elegantia. Let me suggest a third option: The brand won't be able to shrug off the founder, and it will survive and eventually prosper. The prosecutors are at the very least overreaching and in some ways attempting a wholesale redefinition of the concept of 'fraud.' Who's to say it won't be the SEC brand that comes out of this looking like unreasonably demanding control freaks?"
UPDATE June 26: Robert W. Tracinski is scheduled to appear on The O'Reilly Factor on Friday, June 27, to discuss the Martha Stewart case. The show airs on the Fox News Channel at 8pm ET.
Posted by Forkum at June 24, 2003 08:01 AM
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