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Tweets flew fast and furiously during last night's Oscar Ceremony, so was only a matter of time before somebody tweeted something offensive. That time was 11:42 and the tweet was by The Onion, the satiric fake news organization about Quvenzhané Wallis, the nine-year-old star of Beasts of the Southern Wild.
"Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a (four-letter word that begins with C), right?" read the the tweet, which was promptly taken down.
But as everyone who has ever written an ill-advised tweet knows, deleting it does little to quell Internet outrage. For that, only an apology and a promise to revise Twitter policy will do.
Today, The Onion apologized in a Facebook post.
"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," Onion CEO Steve Hannah posted this morning. "It was crude and offensive—not to mention inconsistent with The Onion’s commitment to parody and satire, however biting."
Full apology below:
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
