NPR described Jeffrey Epstein's victims as "underage women," then quickly corrected the error ... [View all]

NPR Public Editor
WITH POYNTER'S KELLY MCBRIDE

… But not before the audience heard it. How did this happen?

NPR Public Editor
WITH POYNTER'S KELLY MCBRIDE

(snip)

People on social media immediately criticized the word choice. That conversation came to the attention of a news executive, who instructed the Morning Edition team to re-record a portion of the introduction for the Up First podcast and subsequent cycles of the Morning Edition broadcast, replacing the inaccurate term with the word "minors." So the error was quickly fixed.

(snip)

Over the last two decades, journalists have improved the language they use to describe crimes of sexual assault. Style guides have encouraged newsrooms to stop using language that blames victims, excuses assailants and normalizes predatory behavior.

This is particularly true when discussing the sexual abuse of teenagers by adults. The Associated Press Stylebook and NPR's own guidance instruct journalists to describe victims who are under the age of 18 as "children," "girls" or "boys," "teenagers" or "minors."

People under age 18 are not "young women" or "young men." And terms like "underage women" are an oxymoron.

https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-public-editor/2025/12/04/g-s1-100597/npr-described-jeffrey-epsteins-victims-as-underage-women-then-quickly-corrected-the-error