And the award for most offensive tweet goes to…
** UPDATE **
The Onion’s CEO Steve Hannah just released an apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the outlandish tweet that went around the web last night. Below you can read his sentiments:
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
Do you agree with this apology? Or should more definitive action take place? Leave your thoughts below.
Props: Vulture
** REGULAR STORY **
You guessed it, The Onion, which is currently under fire, has angered the Internets once again. On Sunday night, the satirical news organization referenced the 9-year-old Oscar nominee using a derogatory term that rhymes with punt, and then later deleted the tweet.
The offense happened while the top awards were being handed out at the 85th Oscars, the following message was tweeted by The Onion’s official Twitter account. You can see it for yourself below:
Moments after the 8:42 p.m. sent tweet reached the Twittersphere, public outcry was calling for everything from the writer of the tweet to be fired to a satirical request that The Onion staff be flogged. Many deemed the would-be joke to be inappropriate and a cheap dig at an unwilling participant. Treme and The Wire actor Wendell Pierce, actor Levar Burton and social commentator Dream Hampton were a few of the most staunch defenders of the young thespian. Pierce (as well as others) directly called out The Onion, tweeting: “Identify the writer. Let him defend that abhorrent verbal attack of a child. You call it humor I call it horrendous.”
Twitter users could see before the offensive tweet that something was off from The Onion, as they included off-color jokes about Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow “donned blood-soaked rags from Osama bin Laden, dead celebrities” onstage during the “In Memoriam” segment.
Requests for comment from Onion editor-in-chief William Tracy from the press were not returned.
Props: The Daily Beast