CEO of the satirical newspaper issues an official statement to publicly apologize to the 'Beasts of the Southern Wild' actress, promising to 'discipline those individuals responsible.'
- Feb 26, 2013
AceShowbiz - After sparking outrage on Twitterverse for making an offensive tweet about youngest Oscar nominee Quvenzhane Wallis, The Onion issued an apology to the 9-year-old "Beasts of the Southern Wild" actress. The newspaper's CEO, Steve Hannah, took to Facebook on Monday morning, February 25, saying sorry for making such a "senseless, humorless" comment about the little girl.
"On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhane Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars," Hannah wrote. "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," said the CEO. "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."
He went on promising, "In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible," before singing praises to the child actress, "Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry."
The online frenzy stirred by Onion, which is best known as a satirical newspaper, started on Sunday evening when it posted a vulgar tweet aimed at Wallis. "Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhane Wallis is kind of a c***, right? #Oscars2013," it said.
The brief message quickly received tons of backlashes from other Twitter users, prompting Onion to remove the posting within hours after it was published. Among those who were left mad by the tweet was actor Wendell Pierce. Asking the writer of the post to be identified, Pierce ranted, "Let him defend that abhorent attack of a child. You call it humor. I call it horrendous."
Wallis' camp has yet to say anything regarding the issue.
