diff --git a/Lib/subprocess.py b/Lib/subprocess.py
index 18e9ed73a87..fcc3e6e3baa 100644
--- a/Lib/subprocess.py
+++ b/Lib/subprocess.py
@@ -1371,11 +1371,10 @@ class Popen(object):
                     exception_name, hex_errno, err_msg = (
                             errpipe_data.split(b':', 2))
                 except ValueError:
-                    warnings.warn(RuntimeWarning(
-                            'Bad exception data: %r' % errpipe_data))
                     exception_name = b'RuntimeError'
                     hex_errno = b'0'
-                    err_msg = b'Unknown'
+                    err_msg = (b'Bad exception data from child: ' +
+                               repr(errpipe_data))
                 child_exception_type = getattr(
                         builtins, exception_name.decode('ascii'),
                         RuntimeError)
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 16bfb3019b8..49d6a1a3866 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -162,6 +162,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Remove a bare print to stdout from the subprocess module that could have
+  happened if the child process wrote garbage to its pre-exec error pipe.
+
 - Issue #16327: The subprocess module no longer leaks file descriptors
   used for stdin/stdout/stderr pipes to the child when fork() fails.