NPR's Approach To A Reported Presidential Profanity Evolves

Note to readers: this post uses profanity that may offend some.

First NPR didn't use "the word" and then it did. I'm referring, of course, to the vulgar slur ("shithole countries") President Trump was reported to have used to disparage African nations during a meeting Thursday on immigration with lawmakers at the White House. At the meeting, NPR reported, he also "questioned why the United States would admit immigrants from them and other nations, like Haiti" and El Salvador, instead of countries like Norway.

In a Thursday evening , NPR referred to Trump's remarks only as a "vulgar slur," and reporter Kelsey Snell said listeners who wanted the full phrase could look at the NPR website, where it was rendered as "s***hole." In the first of today that guidance stood,, NPR started using the word, preceded by a brief heads-up about the language, and eventually began spelling it out online, as well.