Stewart to Greet Friendlier Public Than the One She Left

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- The fascinating odyssey of homemaking expert Martha Stewart continues as she leaves behind a federal prison camp in West Virginia for her estate in Bedford, N.Y., where she will launch her business comeback from home confinement. As Stewart puts the most difficult chapter in her legal saga behind her, a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll finds Americans divided in their reactions to her: about half (48%) feel sympathetic, while half (50%) feel unsympathetic.

While not rampant, sympathy for Stewart is in greater supply today than it was nearly two years ago, when she was indicted on obstruction of justice charges relating to a federal investigation into her December 2001 sale of ImClone Systems stock. In June 2003, only a third of Americans (34%) were sympathetic, while 61% were unsympathetic.

A Gallup Poll in early February found a similar increase in general favorable impressions of Stewart over the same period. In the Feb. 4-6 poll, 53% of Americans had a favorable opinion of her and 32% had an unfavorable opinion. That is nearly a complete reversal of the 33% favorable to 52% unfavorable ratio Stewart registered in June 2003.

Stewart's favorability and sympathy ratios are not bad considering that nearly all Americans (91%) believe Stewart did something illegal and most (72%) think the prison sentence she got was deserved, even if too lenient. On March 5, 2004, Stewart was found guilty of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about the ImClone matter, and was later sentenced to five months in prison, with an additional five months of home detention.

According to the new poll, conducted Feb. 25-27:

• Four in 10 Americans believe Stewart did something illegal and seriously wrong in conjunction with the stock trading investigation, while another 51% believe she did something illegal but not seriously wrong. Only 7% say she did not do anything illegal.
  
  
• Barely a quarter (27%) believe that Stewart's five-month jail sentence was too harsh; the majority says it was about right (41%) or too lenient (31%).

At the same time, there are many more people wishing her luck than ill as she prepares to breathe new life into her flagship company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and mounts the Martha Stewart equivalent of Donald Trump's ratings bonanza, The Apprentice. Americans are equally divided at 48% between those who are "hoping for her to succeed" and those who "don't care either way what happens to her." Only 3% say they hope she will fail. 

The worst that even most of Stewart's detractors are willing to say is that they don't care either way what happens to her. Among those who are unsympathetic toward her, a quarter are hoping she succeeds and two-thirds don't care either way. Only 6% are hoping she will fail. Naturally, most of those who sympathize with Stewart (73%) say they are hoping for her to succeed, while the remainder say they don't care what happens to her.

Increased sympathy for Stewart since her indictment in June 2003 is apparent mostly among women, older Americans, and those in lower-income households -- findings that could bode well for Stewart's discount product line sold through Kmart.

• The overall percentage saying they feel very sympathetic or somewhat sympathetic has barely moved among men, but has risen 20 points among women, from 37% to 57%.

• When breaking down the gender trend by age, we see that increased sympathy for Stewart is most pronounced among women aged 50 or older -- it is up 23 points. By contrast, sympathy is up 18 points among women aged 18 to 49, up 14 points among men 50 and older, and down 2 points among men aged 18 to 49.

• Lower-income Americans -- those living in households earning less than $30,000 annually -- show the greatest increase in sympathy for Stewart; sympathy is up 22 points. This contrasts with a 12-point increase among those earning between $30,000 and $74,999 and a 10-point increase among those earning $75,000 or more.

Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,008 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Feb. 25-27, 2005. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

For results based on the 526 national adults in the Form A half-sample and 482 national adults in the Form B half-sample, the maximum margins of sampling error are ±5 percentage points.

As you may know, Martha Stewart is currently serving a five-month jail term for obstruction of justice related to an insider stock trading investigation.

24. Which of the following best describes your view of Martha Stewart -- [ROTATED: she did something illegal and seriously wrong, she did something illegal but not seriously wrong, or do you think she did not do anything illegal]?

25. Based on what you know and have seen in the news, how do you feel toward Martha Stewart -- very sympathetic, somewhat sympathetic, somewhat unsympathetic, or very unsympathetic?

Q.26-27 SPLIT SAMPLED

26. Do you think Martha Stewart is being treated unfairly because she is a successful woman, or not?

BASED ON 526 NATIONAL ADULTS IN FORM A

27. Do you think Martha Stewart's five-month jail sentence was -- [ROTATED: too harsh, about right, or too lenient]?

BASED ON 482 NATIONAL ADULTS IN FORM B

27-1. Which of the following comes closest to your view of Martha Stewart now that she is about to be released from prison -- [ROTATED: you are hoping for her to succeed in her return to business, you don't care either way what happens to her, or you are hoping she will fail in her return to business]?

34. Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Martha Stewart, or have you never heard of her?