The Globe and Mail's Margaret Wente on why Martha Stewart understands the times better than Conrad Black.

From the commentary: (link may be firewalled for non-Globe subscribers)

In the jury's eyes, the magnitude of Lord Black's crimes comes closer to Martha Stewart than to WorldCom or Enron. This was no $450-million fraud, as Richard Breeden, the avenging angel of corporate governance, alleged. It wasn't a $60-million fraud, as the prosecution alleged. In the end, the fraud for which the jury found him guilty amounted to $21-million - not peanuts, but not enough to merit decades in the slammer, either. Even so, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, fresh from the Scooter Libby kill, can legitimately brag about his latest scalp -- four of them, in fact, when you count Peter Atkinson, Jack Boultbee and Mark Kipnis.

There's a certain logic to that. Once the jury decided Mr. Black was guilty, it would have been illogical to let the others off. After all, their names were on the non-competes too. Whether they deserve a day of jail time is another matter.

Unfortunately for Lord Black, he's no Martha Stewart. Never, never, never will he admit his guilt. Never, never, never will he appear contrite. He will go down fighting, and he'll keep fighting every day that he's in jail. He will rail, as he has always done, against his tormentors. He will never emerge from prison wearing a humble hand-knit poncho. And unlike Martha, he never will regain his business empire or his reputation or his wide circle of famous and important friends. Those are gone for good. He's finished.

Martha Stewart understands what Conrad Black does not. She understands the world she lives in. She understands that whether or not she herself feels wronged is irrelevant. She understands that times have changed, and corporate practices are under a different kind of scrutiny now, and prosecutors and shareholders' rights activists are vigilant, especially when it comes to the wealthy and well-known. She understands that Americans have nothing against rich, successful people, so long as they aren't unduly greedy and don't cheat. But if they think you're cheating, they'll tar and feather you at dawn.

That's why Ms. Stewart is a business genius, and Mr. Black is a failure. She knew that even the smartest person can't outwit the tides of history. For a brilliant student of history like Mr. Black, it was a fatally strange miscalculation. Lord Black was in many ways an anachronism in the world of business - a throwback to the days when merchants called themselves "proprietors" and when "transparency" was a desirable property of plastic wrap.