Chapter 14 of Martha Inc. is unusual in Chris Byron’s gossipy opus in the sense that it is actually fun to read. One wonders if he wrote this chapter (Martha Takes TV) while he was still fantasizing about the fabulous view of Martha’s behind at his local gym, when the possibility of being one of her close friends was still intriguing to him, before the bitterness set in. (
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Saving Martha: The Inside Story of the Tempest in a Cuisinart |
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Inside the Martha Stewart Investigation:
A Case of Double Standards By John Small
The current media assault on Martha Stewart is potentially harmful to all women in the business world. Martha Stewart is a successful female entrepreneur, who has turned the things that most women are ashamed to say they do into a billion dollar empire. She literally built her empire from scratch. Now she is being attacked by some in the media with a level of attention and viciousness that is better reserved for the truly venal, the pedophiles, the Enron execs, the corporate titans who scam their companies for millions, leaving investors and employees in the dust. The same commentators that lectured the Taliban for not making women an equal partner in Afghan society have not even hesitated to get out the pointy-toed boots when one of their own is down... What Really Happened? Everyone wants to know the answer to one question: Did Martha do it? We're not sure, nobody yet knows what happened--and that's the point. Martha has already been tried and convicted in the press. Lets assume that Martha did do it, and sold stock on the recommendation of her broker Peter Bacanovic, which seems the most likely scenario. Put yourself in her shoes--your broker calls and says its time to sell your stock, that the price is going down. What do you do? Refuse? Lose money against his advice? Isn't it your brokers job to tell you when to buy or sell? He's your broker, and you trust him. So you sell. Later, it turns out your broker had insider information. And you're in big trouble. If this scenario proves to be true, then who will be safe in the future selling on the advice of their own broker? If the broker has inside info, then tells you to sell, how can you be expected to know whether the information is privileged? Martha has now saved $60,000 on an investment of less than $300,000. $60,000. That's it. For a woman who was only one of three female self-made billionaires in our nation's history. This momentus event happened in a market where executives at Enron, Global Crossing, Tyco, Adelphia, Andersen have pocketed millions for themselves and lost billions of shareholder dollars. Had Martha Stewart really wanted to be an inside trader, don't you think she would have had a better plan? Don't you think she would have made a lot more money? So why is this front page news day after day? The obvious reason is because nobody knows or cares about Ken Lay, Dennis Koslowski, Gary Winnick, David Duncan, or any of the other execs in the other scandals. After all, they don't have sheets and croc pots with their names on them at K-Mart. Their names don't sell newspapers. So Martha's fame is a great source of the attention. But so is the fact that she's a woman. Most men don't like it when women make more money than they do. This is their chance to get their revenge. Here's what we do know If Martha had sold her stock the day after the announcement, she would have made just $60,000 less than she made by selling the day before. Enron cost investors a total of $65 billion dollars --that's over 6 million times more than Martha's transaction, not to mention the tens of thousands of jobs lost in that scandal. A year later, nobody from Enron is in jail, and Ken Lay doesn't receive a tenth the coverage or scutiny that Martha Stewart does. What did other recent scandals cost Americans? Worldcom: $150 Billion Xerox: $6 Billion
It's simple: nobody knew or cared who Ken Lay was, he didn't have sheets with his name in K Mart, or TV and radio shows, or a national magazine, much less a personality. Yet Ken Lay has not said a word to anyone about what went on, and nobody is asking him any questions as he hides behind lawyers and the Fifth Amendment. His former employees are broke, and one even tragically committed suicide. Ken Lay is not glamorous. Ken Lay is not female. So it's time to start taking a stand, to tell America and the media to get focussed on fixing our broken system and to stop picking on people like Martha. How do you do it? Go to our Action Plan and find out... John Small |
If the latest news headlines prove anything, they reveal that the idea of the female executive in America is under attack. From Martha Stewart to Jill Barad at Mattel and Carly Fiorina at HP, there is a growing hostility among some towards powerful women in business.