The following annoys me. I might vote for some politicians who proposed legislation to corrent the nonsense, without regard for his other policies. If a major manufacturer had an advertisement or a commercial featuring some person who made an outrageous claim about a product, the government & all sorts of consumer protection agencies would descend like a ton of bricks. Suppose GM or Ford paid or otherwise convinced some person to claim that they got 60 miles per gallon from their car. They would probably be fined under some truth in advertising law and required to pay for ads/commercials admitting that they lied. Psychics, channelers, writers of horoscopes, and other charlatans have ads/commercials like this regularly. Any sensible person knows or should know that such anecdotes mean nothing and are probably paid for. In addition to those who claim various types of occult powers, I have seen all sorts of bogus claims made on TV Church programs without any reaction from either the government or consumer protection groups. I remember Randi the magician sending a man dressed as a woman to one of the TV evangelist shows. The man talked about having cancer of the uterus or some other female only disease. As expected, because he talked to all who would listen, the evangelist claimed to have gotten a message from god about a woman named whatever with the disease. He asked the woman to come forth and be cured. Of course, Randi’s shill let him go on a bit and then disclosed himself as a man. Did the show lose any viewers or have a smaller live audience in the next few weeks? Of course not! Did the FCC or any consumer group investigate or suggest that maybe the evangelist was a charlatan who should not be allowed to commit out right fraud? No way!
If people are stupid enoguh to buy into it, really they have noone to blame but themselves. It's more entertainment than a product anyway. Any "healing" would be a placebo.
Dinosaur: I don't think it's actually legal for psychics etc. to make such false claims. I think it's more a problem of not enough enforcers. Consumer protection agencies have their hands full controlling big companies that want to make quasi-illegal claims, so they don't bother to investigate small-time con artists.
Nasor: An auto manufacturer would probably be allowed to have somebody claim that they found the love of their life after buying an auto, but this would not really help them sell cars. I suppose that they would get challenged if they go somebody to lie about his gas mileage. A psychic would get customers due to somebody claiming to have received a message at a seance from some now dead loved one. The psychic could probably pay somdbody to make such a claim or pay them after being investigated, and innocently say "That person believes it, prove that they do not believe it."
