The Today show goes undercover to test “#psychic mediums”.

But is this sort of reporting fair? Does it tell us anything about the truth about psychic mediums, or spiritual realities, or precognition, genuine intuition or anything else?

Or, is it just an example of super lazy journalism, attacking the lowest hanging fruit….and making an example out of some street corner “psychics” who the vast majority of people already know, are far from really psychic in the first place?

Our thoughts:

The problem with this sort of thing, of course, is how completely confused the reporter is, about what a medium DOES, and how they purport to do it. The report starts off saying that “mediums” claim to predict your future – but that’s really NOT what a medium is or does – and to conflate a “tarot card” reader in a NYC cubicle, back alley – or someone who uses crystals to predict the future – with the work of someone like John Edward, or Tyler Henry, or George Anderson, or Gordon Smith, or any of the many ethical folks who do this work in a legitimate way to offer hope, healing and help to those in real grief – simply confuses the issue by targeting, with lazy journalism, the easiest examples to publicly pillory and embarrass.
I’m not a big fan of crystals or street vendor style tarot readers – but to think you’ve “exposed” something important by doing this sort of story, is equally as embarrassing to real journalism, and it is to the mediums it aims to expose.

https://www.today.com/…/are-psychics-real-rossens-hidden-ca…