NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - It worked for the "Blair Witch Project. " Maybe it will work for Martha Stewart too.

We're talking Internet buzz. Positive Internet buzz.

If you haven't heard, Martha's got a new Web site, www.marthatalks.com. This will be her cyber-podium, where she'll give her version of what's going on in her tussle with the government and communicate with fans. It's not terribly exciting yet. Right now there's just a short note thanking supporters and her lawyer's statement. But we're hoping for big things.

Hey, the lady's always been innovative. And this is just using the latest technology to do what high-profile criminal defendants always want to do ... sway public opinion and seed sympathy into the jury pool.

Bernie Ebbers ... Dennis Kozlowski ... all the rest of you CEOs in trouble ... are you paying attention?

"It's a good PR strategy to at least appear to be open," said Mark Crispin, a media critic and professor at New York University. "It's a counter-propaganda drive. It's her attempt to complicate the government's picture of her."

Indeed, the government would have you think she is a liar and an insider trader -- an upper class elitist who thinks she is above the law.

But there are plenty of people who think Martha is getting railroaded. After all, the government took more than a year to get its case together, a case that involves all of three people (Martha, her broker, and his assistant) and one trade. Arthur Andersen's demise took less time.

Some also note that the logic of some of the charges is a little weird (she committed fraud by denying her guilt?).

And, let's face it, the government needs to get some high-profile heads hanging on the wall if it is going to convince anyone it is actually doing something about the sleaze on Wall Street. The Martha Stewart trophy would go a long way in that department.

On the other hand, there are lots of other people who think the lady is as guilty as sin. If arrogance were a crime, they'd probably be right. The style diva, who is irritating in the first place, has taken a high-handed approach throughout the debacle. And people love to see the high and mighty take a fall. Martha Stewart certainly fits the bill ... the woman is a walking Greek tragedy.

The Martha haters outnumber the Martha supporters by more than a 2-to-1 margin in one of our recent unscientific polls.

But maybe this Web effort will allow Martha -- or, more appropriately, Martha's lawyers -- to fan those small, sympathetic embers into something bigger and more useful.

After all, "The Blair Witch Project," an independent movie shot on a $25,000 budget, turned into a $240 million megahit, thanks to some ingenious Internet marketing.

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Of course, a made-up Web site describing spooks and missing students is a long way off from marthatalks.com ... we hope. But obviously Martha's lawyers are working on other fronts, too. Martha's "Open Letter" decrying her prosecution and persecution ran in USA Today only ... a paper aimed not at Wall Street or intelligentsia types, but plain old middle America (your federal jury pool, right?). And in various statements her lawyers are playing the "picking on a successful woman" card pretty heavily.

They are also rattling the "What about Enron?" and "What about WorldCom?" cages pretty hard. That's a tactic likely to garner a lot of sympathy, since those cases actually hurt many people and we're still waiting for some meaningful action.

If and when it does come though, does that mean ... kenlaytalks.com?  

Allen Wastler is Managing Editor of CNN/Money. He can be e-mailed at allen.wastler@turner.com.