Poll sizes up Martha in market and the docket

By Maria Puente
USA Today

So, is her goose cooked? Or will she still be cooking Gala Goose years from now?

According to a new USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, public disapproval numbers for Martha Stewart have soared since last year. More than half the respondents, 52 percent, said they have an unfavorable opinion of Stewart, up from 27 percent last June. Three-quarters of those surveyed think the charges against her — conspiracy, lying, securities fraud — are definitely or probably true. And nearly two-thirds say they're unsympathetic to her.

But the reaction among many ordinary consumers to Stewart's latest legal mess often depends on whether they loved her all along or loathed her from the beginning.

Among the latter, the spectacle of "Miss Perfect" being indicted only validates their longtime contempt. "Guilty, guilty, guilty — what more is there to say?" said Meg Bandi of Appleton, Wis., who never liked her and now likes her even less.

Among the former, Martha in the dock only shows their beloved as a victim, as vulnerable and human as any mortal who strove for perfection and failed. "So what if she made a mistake — she learned her lesson, didn't she?" said Danielle Curry of Atlanta.

Then there's the other, maybe larger group of Americans who take a pragmatic approach to Martha: Love her or loathe her, they're still going to buy her towels. Scott Gould, a research analyst in Washington, D.C., doesn't believe for a moment that Stewart, a former stockbroker, could have just "forgotten" the basic laws of trading.

On the other hand, "if I am in a store and I see, for instance, a shower curtain that I like, and I need a shower curtain and it happens to be from her collection, I will still buy it, mostly because I know that she was adamant about the quality of goods bearing her name," said Gould.

In fact, among those who have bought Stewart's products, only one out of five people said they are less likely to buy now, according to the poll.