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PLEASE READ AND ACT: Open Letter to Ellen Degeneres

RSLancastr

www.StopSylvia.com
RSLancastr
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Sep 7, 2001
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Location
Salem, Oregon
I am copying this message to this sub-forum because I feel that it is important:

==========[ AN OPEN LETTER TO ELLEN DEGENERES ]==========

Ms. De Generes:

I was extremely disappointed when you recently had Theresa Caputo (the woman who is billed as "The Long Island Medium") as a guest on your show.

Self-described "mediums" such as Ms. Caputo do nothing more than use tried-and-true manipulative stage tricks (such as "cold reading") to create an ILLUSION of "psychic powers".

But rest assured, it IS an illusion, nothing more.

And, while such an act can be entertaining (particularly when the performer admits to the audience that it is all nothing but a trick, and that no "psychic powers" were involved), It quickly goes from "entertainment" to "emotional abuse" when the performer pretends that they are receiving messages from deceased persons known to members of their audience, as Ms. Caputo does.

By pretending to be getting information from deceased loved ones, Ms. Caputo is replacing the actual memories the audience member has of their loved one with the made-up memories Ms. Caputo invents.

Even when the purported "message" is something as positive-sounding as "Your husband wants you to know that he watches over you and wants you to remember all of the good times you had together", it can interrupt the audience member's grieving process by cruelly making them think that they can still communicate with the deceased loved one.

And when the "medium" goes a step further and pretends to be able to help solve a murder, or find a missing child (I am not clear on whether or not Ms. Caputo ever crosses this particular line), they can cause incredible harm to people in emotionally vulnerable positions (the parents of a missing child, for example).

Case in point:

As you may be aware, a very popular "psychic medium" named Sylvia Browne has recently made the news when it became known that she had, a few years ago on The Montel Williams Show, told the mother of missing teenager Amanda Berry that Amanda was dead. The mother lost hope in finding Amanda, and died a year or so later, never knowing that her daughter was actually alive.

Browne's declaration that Amanda was dead was, of course, proved wrong last week when Amanda and two other young women escaped - very much alive - from the house in Cleveland where they had all been held captive for the past ten years or so.

Even if Ms. Caputo does NOT do such readings - and I fervently hope that she does not - there is a good chance that she will be urged to do so by the producers of her show, in an effort to draw in more viewers with the drama and emotion that is inherent in murder cases and missing child cases.

Whether she does such readings or not, you have, by having her on your show, given her and what she pretends to do a great deal of credibility with members of your viewing audience, leaving them all the more vulnerable to people like Theresa Caputo, Sylvia Browne, and others of their ilk.

Ellen, I STRONGLY urge you to reconsider ever having ANY "medium" on your show in the future. PLEASE don't give these frauds any credibility or exposure by giving them more air time.

For more than seventeen years, Montel Williams had Sylvia Browne on as a weekly guest (on what he called "Sylvia Browne Wednesdays"), giving Browne national exposure and thus credibility in the eyes of viewers who had respect for Montel.

I BEG you not to do the same with Ms. Caputo.

Anyway, (sorry, I had to add that - I have thought of that routine every time I have used that word in a letter or email ever since I saw you give it, on, what - Letterman? Carson? decades ago)

Thanks for all the positive things you bring to your show.

Robert S. Lancaster,
Founder & Webmaster,
www.StopSylvia.com (the "Stop Sylvia Browne" website mentioned in some of the coverage Browne has received of late.)
Email: Webmaster@StopSylvia.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RSLancastr

If anyone reading this agrees with it, please write to Ellen (in your own words, do NOT just copy my letter. It will have more impact that way.)

Snail-mail her here:

The Ellen DeGeneres Show
PO Box 7788
Burbank, CA

and/or email her via her show's web site:

http://www.ellentv.com/be-on-the-show/10/

COME ON, FORUMITES, THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION!!

IF MINE IS THE ONLY LETTER SHE RECEIVES, SHE CAN EASILY DISMISS ME AS A LONE WINGNUT, A STICK-IN-THE-MUD.

MAKE YOUR OPINION ON THIS KNOWN TO HER!

JUST IMAGINE - IF SOMEONE HAD ORGANIZED A SIMILAR WRITE-IN CAMPAIGN TO EDUCATE MONTEL WILLIAMS THE FIRST TIME HE HAD SYLVIA BROWNE ON HIS SHOW, AMERICA MIGHT HAVE BEEN SPARED SEVENTEEN+ YEARS OF "SYLVIA BROWNE WEDNESDAYS"!!!

DON'T LET ME BE THE LONE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS HERE. ACT, PLEASE!!!!
 
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Ms. Degeneres/producer(s) of the Ellen Degeneres Show,

Psychics, like the "long Island Medium", are not real. Promoting their claimed abilities as real by having them on your show is a great disservice to your audience. At the very least I would encourage you to follow up with a show exploring the simple con-man tricks employed by claimed psychics.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
 
You're welcome. Only took a minute or two but if it gets them to act it will be a fun show to watch.
 
This commercial clip has been discussed before, where she brings a kid to tears by lying to him about his deceased father...

​

That's some pretty heartless exploitation of a child in order to further her own purpose.
 
I've never done anything like this before, but I went ahead and shot a letter to them. Psychics/mediums are what got me into the skeptical movement in the first place, so I may as well start acting!
 
Sent a note. Should've copy and pasted it, but I noted that by having this person on her show, she was effectively legitimizing a business where the point is to prey on grieving people and profiting by intentionally and callously lying to them.

I did it in a way that came off a lot more nicer than how it sounds here.
 
I don't watch a lot of Ellen, personally, but she strikes me as someone with a more-than-usual level head. I'm assuming this medium farce was something that was foisted on her. I hope we give her the munitions she needs to tell the corp types to take a hike and to take that medium with them.
 
I sent a fairly short message via the website. Basically I said, "You're better than that."
 
Mister Earl said:
I don't watch a lot of Ellen, personally, but she strikes me as someone with a more-than-usual level head. I'm assuming this medium farce was something that was foisted on her. I hope we give her the munitions she needs to tell the corp types to take a hike and to take that medium with them.
Click to expand...

We (My Better Half and I) watch Ellen's show most every day. I would agree about her being pretty level-headed, which is yet another reason I was greatly disappointed in Caputo's appearance on her show. I get the feeling (though I could be wrong) that Ellen is pretty firmly in control of her guest line-up. But yes, if Caputo's appearance was something that others forced on her (Hell, it could even be that her wife Portia is a big believer in psychics, and was the foisting influence here, if there is one), any letters we send would help her fight another such foisting. Good point!

JoeTheJuggler said:
I sent a fairly short message via the website. Basically I said, "You're better than that."
Click to expand...

I think she is too, Joe - thanks for the support!

William Parcher said:
Ms. De Generes:

Psychics aren't psychic. But you already knew that, didn't you?
Click to expand...

:D - Thanks, Will P!
 
I think the first half of the letter is pretty effective, but is degraded somewhat by the second half. I think that attempting to tie in the anti-Sylvia Browne campaign dilutes the original message. It also gives the impression that you're attempting guilt by association, rather than letting the indictment of Theresa Caputo stand on its own merits.
 
theprestige said:
I think the first half of the letter is pretty effective, but is degraded somewhat by the second half. I think that attempting to tie in the anti-Sylvia Browne campaign dilutes the original message. It also gives the impression that you're attempting guilt by association, rather than letting the indictment of Theresa Caputo stand on its own merits.
Click to expand...

I think this makes sense. Keep the focus on Caputo, and then, if you need to, refer more broadly to others who purport to be psychics and take advantage of the emotionally needy (and there are plenty of examples).

I wonder if it might be more effective to recast this as an online petition requesting that she not book or give credence to Caputo or any other purported psychics, and post it on Change.org. It would get a national audience and possibly thousands of signatures. It might also flush "psychics" and their supporters out of the woodwork, and Ellen could benefit from an up-close look at these loons when they get mad. She's an intelligent, responsible woman; she might even take part in demonstrations of how psychics make their "miracles," the way ex-magician Johnny Carson (with Randi's help) exposed Uri Geller and faith healers.
http://www.change.org/petition
 
I brought Browne into it not to plug my site, but to show Ellen the damage a talk show host can do by giving one of these charlatans air time.
 
...and to give her ammunition to say NO if someone proposes the idea of bringing on parents of missing children to seek "help" from Caputo on the show.
 
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