Ethics and Sensitivity in Copy Editing

I read a story in class that was about incidents of groups of young people attacking others is growing in the Washington D.C. area. The article mentioned the groups were made up of teenagers and young adults. I got confused, because I always thought teenagers and young adults were the same thing. Of course, a person isn't legally an adult until he or she is 18-years-old. I think the story would have been better if it gave a specific age range.

Reading this didn't ruin my day or anything. I was really just being nitpicky for the sake of the class. But there are people who actually get offended over word usage in articles.

Last week, I did read an article that bothered me a little. A man was beaten to death in the street. The man was gay, but it wasn't known if the beating was a hate crime. I feel like the reporter just put that in there to add "color" to the article. The fact that he was gay adds a whole new side to the story. But the fact that it wasn't sure if it had anything to do with the crime made it seem unnecessary to the story. I don't think it should have been mentioned because it didn't seem relevent.