Reincarnation therapy, ‘life energy’ as the main source of nutrition and ‘energetic therapy sessions’ in which you would remove waste products by burping. LINDA. According to the Association Against Quackery, magazine gives ample scope to controversial pseudoscience and will therefore receive the Master Kackadoris Prize this year – an award that the association presents annually to persons or organizations that offer quacks a platform.
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The jury, led by psychiatrist Michiel Hengeveld, reports that it was “unpleasantly surprised” by the way in which LINDA. writes about “costly and pointless treatments.” “The most wonderful quackery is thrown into the world without reservation – via the magazine and linda.nl,” reads the jury report. “It’s all there in vain, without any sane commentary.”
In LINDA., the glossy by Linda de Mol that is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, serious topics alternate with light-hearted lifestyle, fashion and human interest stories. On the website, the files ‘hair removal’, ‘suicide’ and ‘hormones’ are listed next to each other. A combination that seems to work for the target group. The LINDA. is able to survive well in the shrinking magazine industry and has a circulation of about 150 thousand one of the best-selling women’s glossies in the Netherlands.
And that is precisely the sore point according to the jury. LINDA. acts “as a friend to female readers” and thus makes quackery “acceptable in a playful manner.” For example, an article gives five tips to “boost your immune system.” All without scientific substantiation, but that is not stated. “The mix of more serious articles and the open-minded way in which non-regular treatment methods are presented as a reasonable alternative will have led and will continue to lead many readers astray,” the jury said.
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Other nominees for the Kackadoris Prize were the Dutch Association for Medical Oncology and the website Kanker.nl, both for presenting additional treatments, such as acupuncture, the effectiveness of which has not been proven. The National Health Fair was also nominated because of the presence of “gurus who try to trick you into buying their pointless courses and intoxicating you with their wonderful pseudotherapies.” The last nominee was KRO-NCRV. In the program ‘Action warm heart’, the broadcaster donated ten thousand euros to the B12 Institute, which, according to the association, has proven that their treatments are “pointless in almost all cases”.
The name of the prize is taken from the main character and quack from the 16th century play Master Kackadoris. The prize will be awarded for the twenty-first time this Saturday.