Quvenzhané Wallis looked cute as a button on the red carpet of the Academy Awards Sunday night, but satirical news site, “The Onion” went kind of far when they tweeted, then deleted, saying “ Everyone is afraid to say it but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a c--- right? #Oscars2013”
While the tweet was quickly removed the site is still under fire. The comment is not only totally inappropriate for an innocent, albeit insanely accomplished 9 year old, but also can be construed as racist.
Where the humor was in this tweet is unknown, but did the site not remember it was dealing with a mere 9 year old? It was bad enough the Best Actress nominee had to sit through Seth MacFarane's lame eighteen minute monologue. While Wallis lost the Best Actress to Jennifer Lawrence, she will have the title of youngest nominee in that category for a few years.
"The Wire" star Wendell Pierce saw the derogatory tweet, and wanted The Onion staff to identify the vulgar tweeter:
"@TheOnion Identify the writer. Let him defend that abhorrent verbal attack of a child. You call it humor I call it horrendous," he wrote. "It doesn't matter what the intent was, it was offensive and they should apologize to Quvenzhane."
On Monday, The Onion's CEO Steve Hannah apologized on behalf of his organization via Facebook.
"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," he apologized."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."
It seems The Onion has tried to cover their tracks before they got into too hot of water, but anything could happen. The lesson is: “Think before you tweet!”
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