The Reason People Are Comparing This Government Scandal To Martha Stewart
Remember when Martha Stewart went to prison? That's something she and her bestie Snoop Dogg have in common – they've both spent time in the big house. If you're only familiar with the slightly edgy, kinda wacky Martha 2.0 who seems poised to inherit Betty White's "Queen of the Feisty Over-90s" crown (in another 10 years, which is when she would reach this milestone), you probably don't realize what a shocker it was back in the early '00s. First-gen Martha was more of a prim and proper domestic diva type, and getting busted for insider trading was definitely not a good thing.
Still, you do the crime, you do the time, right? Maybe so, maybe no, as we might witness in the case of Gerald Fauth. Forbes informs us that Fauth dumped $280,000 of stocks within minutes of receiving a call from his brother-in-law last February. So what? Well, his B-I-L, Richard Burr (R-NC) happens to be a senator who was serving on the Senate's health and intelligence committees at the time and was privy to relevant classified info. This call occurred about a week before COVID-19 dealt a major blow to the stock market. In fact, Burr and Fauth are being investigated by the SEC for possible insider trading, the crime that earned Martha Stewart her prison sentence. Whether or not either man will be prosecuted remains to be seen, but they've already been convicted in the court of Twitter.
Twitter points out obvious parallels with Martha Stewart's no-longer-scandalous scandal
Twitter picked up obvious parallels between the senator's suspected misdeeds and those of a certain domestic diva. As one person succinctly stated, "@SenatorBurr 2 Words... Martha Stewart." Another added, "Martha Stewart served time in prison for far less than this," while a third expressed skepticism that the senator would be punished to quite the same extent, saying "And he'll never do a minute of a fraction of Martha's Stewart's time, will he?" How fair is that? Not very, according to this tweet: "Martha Stewart should file suit for wrongful imprisonment. If the laws don't apply to senators it shouldn't have applied to her."
One irate Twitter user saw this current scandal as a commentary on our nation's woes, posting, "Martha Stewart did much less and went to jail for it. Lately, the lack of accountability for too many white-collar criminals, insurrectionists & politicians is breeding resentment, cynicism and rage. This country is in the sh*tter." Another, however, was fascinated by the staunch defense of a once-tarnished idol, commenting, "so interesting how feeling about Martha Stewart has evolved. used to be a lot of shame and comeuppance in her jail time, but now she's sort of a symbol of taking your medicine (maybe even unfairly so). reputational change is one of the fascinatin things about getting older it is." Maybe if Sen. Burr does jail time, he can join fellow ex-cons Martha and Snoop on their next TV special!