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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Did Prison Time Prevent Martha Plea?
Aired June 06, 2003 - 07:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Can you stop Martha Stewart? Martha's fans are coming to her aid.
Andy Serwer is here with that story.
You're talking about there was a potential that there was a plea deal that was going to go through?
(CROSSTALK)
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, really interesting, Daryn. Right here, the New York tabloids are reporting this morning that there was a failed copping of a plea working out between Martha Stewart and prosecutors, and 11th-hour situation. The only problem is the prosecutors insisted that she do jail time, and she was really considering it apparently, according to these stories.
But in the end, she said, no. She is rolling the dice. Of course, she may end up doing jail time anyway, but you can understand the fact, you know, of not wanting to cop a plea with jail time as being part of the package. I mean, who would want to do that, right?
KAGAN: And the attractive part of that is...
SERWER: Yes, exactly.
KAGAN: Meanwhile, her fans are fighting back.
SERWER: Yes, this is great stuff. Marthatalks.com., she has -- well this is a Web site she created this Web site herself...
KAGAN: Right.
SERWER: ... to help rally the troops, to help rally Martha fans. A really interesting thing, Allan Chernoff here reports that she helped design the Web site. The colors are Granny Smith green and robin's egg blue, according to a spokesperson, that she helped pick this out; 1.7 million hits in 17 hours, she's going to spend $1 million doing this, 13,000 e-mails. She is launching this massive publicity campaign like that tasteful letter in "USA Today" yesterday with that paper clip on it. Very Martha.
I mean, it's just this is so much fun covering this thing, because I just find it kind of wacky.
KAGAN: It's kind of wacky, but on a serious note, a lot of criticism was that, you know, you're picking on Martha. SERWER: Yes.
KAGAN: Here is a woman who, when you compare to some other business messes we have seen over the last year or two, does not really compare. But you're saying one of the big business tycoons could be next in line.
SERWER: Well, that's right. WorldCom, a report is going to be released on Monday, Daryn, according to "The Wall Street Journal," and finally the finger is going to be pointed at Bernie Ebbers, the founder and former CEO of this company. You know, we've been waiting for the big kingpins to fall here, and this report by Nick Lucas (ph), who is commissioned by the company itself, suggested Bernie Ebbers is responsible for the malfeasance of that company. And they'll put pressure on investigators for an indictment there.
KAGAN: We'll still wait to see what happens there.
SERWER: Yes.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Andy. See you next hour.
SERWER: OK, see you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Plea?>
Aired June 6, 2003 - 07:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Can you stop Martha Stewart? Martha's fans are coming to her aid.
Andy Serwer is here with that story.
You're talking about there was a potential that there was a plea deal that was going to go through?
(CROSSTALK)
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, really interesting, Daryn. Right here, the New York tabloids are reporting this morning that there was a failed copping of a plea working out between Martha Stewart and prosecutors, and 11th-hour situation. The only problem is the prosecutors insisted that she do jail time, and she was really considering it apparently, according to these stories.
But in the end, she said, no. She is rolling the dice. Of course, she may end up doing jail time anyway, but you can understand the fact, you know, of not wanting to cop a plea with jail time as being part of the package. I mean, who would want to do that, right?
KAGAN: And the attractive part of that is...
SERWER: Yes, exactly.
KAGAN: Meanwhile, her fans are fighting back.
SERWER: Yes, this is great stuff. Marthatalks.com., she has -- well this is a Web site she created this Web site herself...
KAGAN: Right.
SERWER: ... to help rally the troops, to help rally Martha fans. A really interesting thing, Allan Chernoff here reports that she helped design the Web site. The colors are Granny Smith green and robin's egg blue, according to a spokesperson, that she helped pick this out; 1.7 million hits in 17 hours, she's going to spend $1 million doing this, 13,000 e-mails. She is launching this massive publicity campaign like that tasteful letter in "USA Today" yesterday with that paper clip on it. Very Martha.
I mean, it's just this is so much fun covering this thing, because I just find it kind of wacky.
KAGAN: It's kind of wacky, but on a serious note, a lot of criticism was that, you know, you're picking on Martha. SERWER: Yes.
KAGAN: Here is a woman who, when you compare to some other business messes we have seen over the last year or two, does not really compare. But you're saying one of the big business tycoons could be next in line.
SERWER: Well, that's right. WorldCom, a report is going to be released on Monday, Daryn, according to "The Wall Street Journal," and finally the finger is going to be pointed at Bernie Ebbers, the founder and former CEO of this company. You know, we've been waiting for the big kingpins to fall here, and this report by Nick Lucas (ph), who is commissioned by the company itself, suggested Bernie Ebbers is responsible for the malfeasance of that company. And they'll put pressure on investigators for an indictment there.
KAGAN: We'll still wait to see what happens there.
SERWER: Yes.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Andy. See you next hour.
SERWER: OK, see you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Plea?>
