Satire site The Onion apologized Monday Feb. 25 for a comment it posted on the social media website Twitter Sunday night.
The tweet was posted during the Academy Awards and mentioned nine-year-old Best Actress Nominee Quvenzhané Wallis.
"Everyone else seems afraid to say it," the tweet read, "but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a c---, right?"
The post was deleted about an hour later, but not before the Internet exploded with outraged reactions.
"Let him defend that abhorrent verbal attack of a child," The Wire actor Wendell Pierce tweeted, demanding that the author of the tweet identify himself. "You call it humor, I call it horrendous."
The Onion did not immediately apologize for the remark and by Monday morning the site posted a tweet on the completely different subject of supermarket savings, which only served to fuel the reaction. CEO Steve Hannah finally apologized for the tweet on Facebook later in the day.
"Dear readers," he said. "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."
Wallis was nominated for her role in "Beasts of the Southern Wild." She is the youngest actress ever to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
