The Onion, known for its fake news satire, has issued an apology to 9-year-old Oscar nominee, Quvenzhané Wallis after an offensive tweet directed at her on Twitter.
Wallis was nominated for Best Actress for her roll in "Beasts of the Southern Wild."
The tweet from The Onion called the child a c-t. The Tweet was posted during The Oscars and said, "Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a c--t, right? #Oscars2013."
After the Tweet went viral, a pouring of outrage came out. E! News reported that actor Wendell Pierce retaliated at The Onion and said, "@TheOnion Identify the writer. Let him defend that abhorrent verbal attack of a child. You call it humor I call it horrendous."
"It doesn't matter what the intent was, it was offensive and they should apologize to Quvenzhane," he added.
In response, The Onion's CEO Steve Hannah posted an apology letter on The Onion's website and its Facebook page. The letter on stated:
"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;"
A public apology from The Onion is rare as they don't usually break their satirical persona. Wallis is the youngest Best Actress nominee in all of Oscar history. E! News reported that she is set to star in the remake of Annie which will be produced by Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Jay-Z.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
