The Onion was forced to apologize for a tweet about adorable Quvenzhane Wallis, the nine-year-old, Oscar nominated star of ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’, when it proceeded to set the Internet on fire! The tweet, which went out right at the end of last Sunday’s Oscars, read,
“Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhane Wallis is kind of a [expletive: four letter word for female genitalia], right?”
The responses came immediately…
In a rare apology for the satirical news site, The Onion’s CEO Steve Hannah posted this last Monday morning on Facebook:
“Dear Readers,
On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive—not to mention inconsistent with The Onion’s commitment to parody and satire, however biting.
No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire.
The tweet was taken down within an hour of publication. We have instituted new and tighter Twitter procedures to ensure that this kind of mistake does not occur again.
In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible.
Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry.
Sincerely,
Steve Hannah
CEO
The Onion
You know, I get satire. Its my favorite type of comedy. But for the life of me, I don’t get why they went there with this one.
