Entertainment
The 'Long Island Medium' Accused of Faking — Again
Theresa Caputo has been enjoying a tour, growing popularity, and the premiere of Season 5 of her TLC show Long Island Medium . Things are looking great for the big-haired LI mom, whose private sessions earn her quite a paycheck. But psychic-debunker Ron Tebo has been loudly proclaiming that Caputo is a total fake who uses "cold reading" techniques to massage the audience into revealing what they're looking to hear and then repeating it back to them.
Tebo refers to several incidents reported by attendees of Caputo's live tours and videos of her inaccurate or vague readings. Her tactics, he claims, like throwing out vague descriptions such as "Someone here lost a son/father/sister," are attempts by a decidedly not psychic person to get the audience to provide all of the details.
What's weird is that Tebo seems to think this revelation is big news. Not only has Caputo been reported a fake before, but most people who believe in "psychics" aren't overly worried about whether or not the person has actual metaphysical gifts. They are usually in pain and just want someone who can assure them that their loved one is in peace so they can move on with their lives. HBO's The Leftovers actually did a fantastic job depicting the confluence of grief, hope, and willful ignorance in last week's episode.
It's like the X-Files… they want to believe. That's incredibly cheesy, but at the core, I think, true. But Tebo disagrees that Caputo has the ability to do good. "She’s bringing comfort under false pretenses, and taking advantage of vulnerable, grieving people," he says to RadarOnline in a scathing, detailed account of why he finds Caputo a fake, complete with video. Even a site called "Long Island Medium Fake" thinks Tebo's accusations have crossed the line. After all, there's no definitive proof that Caputo isn't psychic.
Now here's where Caputo is going wrong — her prices and waiting lists have ballooned since she got her show deal and big-ticket tours. And as prices have gone up, satisfaction is going down. Many of her loyal followers have been expressing dissent with the readings she's given them, and with all of the hype surrounding her, she's not delivering that same personal connection that made her reputation. Even if she was always just picking up on what the customer wanted to hear, that meant she was connecting with them, helping them move on. What we see on the show is so successful because she's a part of her community, and often will give free on-the-spot readings to people at the grocery store. A bigger head (complete with bigger hair) means that she's losing touch and may need to come back down to her Long Island roots.
What she really needs to switch up is that fake shock that comes over her face every time she does a reading. Come on, lady, you do know that you're psychic, right?
