“Psychics” on Television

OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE WARNING:  a vulgar term for the pudenda muliebrum is below.

 

Cheating the Public

On late-night TV—

on GEM—some “psychics” pretend

to make predictions

and gullible fools

ring, at five bucks a minute,

to hear pat fictions.

GEM, quite knowingly,

defrauds credulous viewers

by such wicked stunts;

the alleged psychics,

of course, are avaricious,

unprincipled cunts.

See Psychic TV:

Connect with Australia’s expert mediums, psychics and clairvoyants – live and interactive on Foxtel.  Our team of specialist, hand selected psychics are ready and waiting for your call!  We operate our very own television channel as well as providing a number of top quality services that caters for everyone’s needs, including psychic readings by phone, text messages and email readings to name but a few.
We have psychic mediums and clairvoyant on call 24hrs a day, 7 days a week and subscription services that empower you and keeps you one step ahead. [sic]

UPDATE I (11 October):  in Britain, a renowned (but fake) medium, Sally Morgan, is seen wearing an earpiece, whereby she may be fed information which she can repeat as purported messages from the beyond, in one of her own videos.  An old schoolmate from Riverside High School, Michael Witheford, writes that Derren Brown, his hero, debunker of various frauds and scams, and a cunning trickster, “is the coolest guy on earth.”

UPDATE II (27 January, 2012):  Sally Morgan, the scamming fraud, is trying to obtain money from The Daily Mail; see “TV psychic Sally Morgan sues Daily Mail for defamation”, by Sarah Limbrick:

TV psychic Sally Morgan is demanding damages of £150,000 from Associated Newspapers over a Daily Mail story accusing her of scamming a vulnerable audience.
The article, published on 22 September, was headlined: “What a load of crystal balls!”
It alleged Morgan pretended to have psychic powers when she was in fact simply repeating instructions from members of her team via a microphone and hidden earpiece, according to a writ lodge at the High Court.
Morgan, who was Princess Diana’s former psychic, claims the story caused substantial damage to her reputation, as well as hurt, distress and embarrassment.
The story was widely reported in the national press at the time but Associated Newspapers is the only publisher named on the writ.  The story in question was an opinion piece by the magician and former psychic Paul Zenon.  [...]
In her High Court writ Morgan describes herself as a professional psychic and claims to have privately helped numerous people overcome traumatic or emotional situations.

UPDATE III (5 February):  see James Van Praagh:

UPDATE IV (30 March, 2014):  see “US ‘psychic’ Cynthia Miller jailed for $1.2 million fraud”:

A female “psychic” who admitted she defrauded over a million dollars from clients — including a mentally ill man who was hearing voices — has been sentenced to nearly three and a half years in prison.
Cynthia Miller, 36, who ran the Astrology Life store in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was the last of nine family members sentenced for their roles in a psychic fraud conspiracy that federal prosecutors said fleeced more than $US20 million ($21.6 million) from clients all over the world.
Miller, who advertised as a psychic and “life coach”, admitted that she claimed she could communicate with spirits and had the power to remove curses and negativity from her clients’ lives.
She told customers that money or valuables they gave her would either be burned, sacrificed or donated to charity or churches. She made $1.2 million from the fraud.