But now to more weighty matters.

And disturbing news on the dangers of wind farms from Channel Seven's Today Tonight in Adelaide.

PRESENTER: Tonight, for the first time, hard evidence wind farms aren't safe. RODNEY LOHSE: They were told they were blowing in the wind, that it was all in their heads. MAN: I'm not telling furphies, it's real, we can feel it. — Channel Seven, Today Tonight, 21st January, 2015

Yes, as TT told us recently, those wind turbines are so bad that even the chickens get flustered.

RODNEY LOHSE: Even the chooks appeared spooked by something. MAN: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. That's not normal. — Channel Seven, Today Tonight, 21st January, 2015

That TT footage on a wind farm in South Australia first got a run some two and a half years ago.

So why has it just popped up again?

Well, for much the same reason that radio hosts also went into a spin late last month:

ALAN JONES: Now, it's a headline today and it's been called a world first study. — 2GB, The Alan Jones Breakfast Show, 21st January, 2015

TIM BENNETT: Probably the biggest story today ... is this front page on The Australian. — ABC 639 North and West SA, Mornings with Tim Bennett (fill in presenter), 21st January, 2015

ROSS STEVENSON: Front page of The Australian has a exclusive story that people living near wind farms face a greater risk of suffering health complaints ... — 3AW, Breakfast with Ross and John, 21st January, 2015

Back in January The Australian headed its front page with an exclusive from Environment Editor Graham Lloyd , who told us excitedly in his opening paragraph:

PEOPLE living near wind farms face a greater risk of suffering health complaints caused by the low-frequency noise generated by turbines, a groundbreaking study has found. — The Australian, 21st January, 2015

Mr Lloyd has been worried about wind farms for some time-and those yolkless eggs-so was he right to claim he'd at last found evidence that they damage your health?

Well, not according to several eminent scientists we talked to. And, remarkably, not according to Steven Cooper, the study's author, who told Media Watch:

No, it's not correct ... You can't say that noise affects health from this study. — Steven Cooper, Acoustic Engineer, 28th January, 2015

So what did Mr Cooper think about about Today Tonight's claims that he had provided the first hard evidence that wind farms are unsafe?

Well, no again.

Absolutely not, that's incorrect. — Steven Cooper, Acoustic Engineer, 28th January, 2015

The company that commissioned the study, Pacific Hydro says it was not a scientific study, and not a health study, and does not show that wind farms are causing health complaints.

And asked on ABC Radio about this, Mr Cooper agreed.

Pacific Hydro are correct that we don't have a correlation in terms of medical and I agree with that 100% — ABC Ballarat, Mornings with Anne-Marie Middlemast, 21st January, 2015

So how come The Australian and Today Tonight got it so wrong.

The head of medicine at Adelaide University, Professor Gary Wittert, told Media Watch:

The way The Australian reported this study was really the antithesis of good science reporting. I think a newspaper like The Australian should know better. — Professor Gary Wittert, Head of Medicine, The University of Adelaide, 6th February, 2015

And he's by no means the only one to express that view.

Writing in The Conversation, the Australian National University's Jacqui Hoepner and Will Grant also condemned The Australian's front page story and the study it was based on, branding it:

... an exemplary case of what we consider to be bad science and bad science reporting. — The Conversation, 22nd January, 2015

And Sydney University's professor of public health Simon Chapman was even more damning, telling Media Watch.

Scientifically, it's an absolutely atrocious piece of research and is entirely unpublishable other than on the front page of The Australian. — Professor Simon Chapman, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, 23rd January, 2015

So what exactly is wrong with the study and why should it not have been headline news?

Well, first, it was not published in an academic journal or peer reviewed by independent experts.

Second, it had a tiny sample.

Just three households and six respondents.

Third ... there was what scientists call selection bias, because all those people already had health problems which they blamed on Pacific Hydro's wind farm at Victoria's Cape Bridgewater, 1.6 kilometres or less from their homes.

And fourth, all knew if the wind farm was operating because they could see the blades.

Now you can't blame these on Steven Cooper because the parameters were set by Pacific Hydro who commissioned the research.

But scientifically, say the experts, it means the results can't be trusted. Indeed, in Professor Chapman's view:

The media should have treated this with absolute contempt. — Professor Simon Chapman, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, 23rd January, 2015

Now there's no doubt that some people living close to wind farms have health problems.

And believe that the wind farms are the cause.

But as The Conversation reminded us ... a recent study in the British Medical Journal found they are not alone in having these health complaints.

... almost 90% of the general population experienced many of the common symptoms associated with wind turbine syndrome within a given week. — The Conversation, 22nd January, 2015

Much of the debate turns on whether there's something special about the noise from wind farms that makes them harmful to health ... even if the noise is below health limits.

The study's author Steven Cooper has long believed there is ... and that it's called infrasound.

STEVEN COOPER: Infrasound is energy that appears in the spectrum below what the human ear can normally hear. — Channel Seven, Today Tonight, 4th June, 2012

Infrasound, says Cooper, interferes with our sleep and our brain patterns.

And he says his latest study suggests ... sensations people feel near wind farms ... may be caused by the infrasound the turbines produce.

But so far mainstream experts have not been convinced.

Cooper's theories were dismissed by a senate inquiry into wind farm noise back in 2011.

And dismissed again in 2013 by South Australia's Environmental Protection Agency.

And dismissed again by South Australia's Land & Environment Court last year .

Yet The Australian and Today Tonight omitted to tell us these important facts.

They also omitted to tell us that, as Professor Chapman puts it:

There are 24 high-quality reviews about wind farms and health, and overwhelmingly they have been found to be safe. — Professor Simon Chapman, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, 23rd January, 2015

Indeed, last week, the government's National Health and Medical Research Council published the results of its review of seven studies of wind farms and health.

And the NHMRC came to the conclusion that:

There is currently no consistent evidence that wind farms cause adverse health effects in humans.*** — National Health and Medical Research Council, Evidence on Wind Farms and Human Health, 11 February, 2015

But unlike the Cooper study that news did not make The Australian's front page.

And just three days after the NHMRC said there is no evidence that wind farms are harmful to health Graham Lloyd came back to suggest there is.

Unseen, unheard wind farms a blow to health GROUNDBREAKING Australian research has established a "cause and effect" existed between wind farms and health impacts on some nearby residents, a peer review by one of the world's leading acoustic experts says. — The Weekend Australian, 14-15 February, 2015

That so-called groundbreaking research was the Cooper study ... again.

The one that Professor Chapman describes as an atrocious piece of research and other experts assure us is bad science.

And the expert quoted in this 'peer' review was an American scientist who has long agreed with Mr Cooper's theories.

But let's go back to what Cooper himself told the ABC about how groundbreaking this research is.

Asked about whether he has found a correlation between infrasound and headaches or other sensations of which people were complaining he said:

I don't have enough data to say a correlation. The study is limited, it's a pilot study and there's a trend line that's very clear. Correlation needs a lot more scientific rigour with a larger population to come up with the answer. — ABC Ballarat, Mornings with Anne-Marie Middlemast, 21st January, 2015

Now ... The Australian has sent us a long statement defending its original coverage which we'd encourage you to read on our website . But its key point is:

... The Australian believes this is clearly an issue of significant public interest, worthy of presentation on page one and of extensive investigation and further reporting. — Clive Mathieson, Editor, The Australian, 8th February, 2015

Well, we'd certainly agree that more work needs to be done.

But we believe The Australian needs to get its facts right, and to approach it in a more scientific and objective fashion.

And you can read more about all tonight's stories on our website, where you can also get a transcript and download the program.

You can also catch up with us on iview and contact me or Media Watch on Twitter.

But for now until next week that's all from us. Goodbye.

***This transcript has been updated to reflect the accurate NHMRC quote on wind farms and health. Due to a graphics error, Media Watch originally quoted from an independent review commissioned by the NHMRC, which looked at all available evidence on wind farms and human health.