…or, would you like some H-bomb with your coffee — in reference to the authority Harvard authors give studies, for better or worse.

News flash: Coffee does not prevent prostate cancer. One study found that people who drink a lot of coffee have a lower risk of prostate cancer that now who don’t.

Still, yesterday’s Harvard School of Public coffee and prostate cancer study generated headlines like:

WOWT – TV web site, a Nebraska NBC affiliate. Study: Coffee Prevents Cancer (Hey; “It’s the news you can trust” )

Fox News: Drinking Coffee Helps Avoid Prostate Cancer, Study Says (Seems bad reporting is non-partisan)

Lead authorLorelei Mucci wasn’t particularly helpful when she stated:Our study is the largest to date to examine whether coffee could lower the risk of lethal prostate cancer."

But, you’re reading a science blog so you know that population studies do not show cause and effect. On rare occasions — smoking and lung cancer — the results are strong enough to draw some conclusions.

So, the lesson here is: Researchers: Talk to your press office. Press officers: Talk to your researchers. Editors talk to your headline writers. Reporters: Stand firm with your editors as the gather around you and ask — Can we put a story on the front that says hot dogs cause brain cancer? (Editors sometimes have kids who eat tons of hot dogs.)

As Health News Review points out:

We simply don’t know why more news organizations can’t do an adequate job of explaining the limitations of observational studies – most notably, that they can’t prove cause and effect.

NBC Nightly News, as one example last night, inadequately explained the latest suggestion that coffee consumption can lower the risk of prostate cancer. In the anchor lead, Brian Williams framed this as another case of flip-flopping science, lightheartedly talking about what they say about “all those medical studies…if you don’t like the findings, wait for the next study.”