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The Onion apologizes for offensive Quvenzhané Wallis
tweet
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Onion is apologizing for calling the 9-year-old star of
"Beasts of the Southern Wild" a vulgar and offensive name on Twitter, an attack
that led to a firestorm online.
The satirical newspaper referred to Quvenzhané Wallis on
Sunday with an expletive intended to denigrate women. The Onion was
lambasted overnight and asked for forgiveness Monday.
"It was crude and offensive -- not to mention inconsistent with The
Onion's commitment to parody and satire, however biting," The Onion CEO Steve
Hannah wrote on Facebook. "No person should be subjected to such a senseless,
humorless comment masquerading as satire."
Hannah said the offensive tweet was taken down within an hour and the
newspaper has "instituted new and tighter Twitter procedures" to ensure it will
never happen again. Those responsible would be disciplined, he added.
"Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The
Onion are deeply sorry."
A message sent to Quvenzhané's representative seeking comment wasn't
immediately returned Monday.
The Onion's original tweet brought some calls for the fake news organization
to publicly identify the writer of the tweet, vows to refuse to retweet its
material, and requests from outraged consumers to email The Onion to
complain.
Oscar host Seth MacFarlane also joked about the young star during the
ceremony. Some found his quip offensive, albeit not to the degree of the
outrage over The Onion's tweet. MacFarlane joked that "it'll be 16 years before
she's too old for" George Clooney.
It wasn't the first time The Onion has gotten into hot water for trying to
push its humor. Last year, the site attracted public ire for an image that
showed an airliner about to crash into Chicago's Willis Tower, the tallest
building in the country.
And the year before, Washington Capitol Police released a statement refuting
tweets and an article claiming that members of Congress had taken a group of
schoolchildren hostage. The article had included a doctored picture of
Republican John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives, holding a
gun to a child's head.
The Chicago-based publication was founded in 1988 by two students in Madison
from the University of Wisconsin. Starting as a local college newspaper, it
became a national comedy institution and went online in 1996, and has since
developed a television news parody.
The publication is distributed weekly in cities, but it has also embraced
Twitter and has an app for the iPad and other tablets. It says it averages 40
million page views and roughly 7.5 million unique visitors per month.
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