It took almost an hour for The Onion to delete the tweet but the backlash from the tweet was almost instantaneous with users voicing their opinions and condemning the tweet from all sides.

This morning CEO Steve Hannah took to the publication’s Facebook page posting an apology:

This glaring oversight in self-control shows that some people just don’t learn from the social media mistakes of others. A publication such as The Onion, seeing as it is in the satire business, has placed itself in a slippery position. It must always be conscious of the content it puts out, toeing the line between funny and outright offensive.

What makes the situation worse is that The Onion wasn’t the only outlet to single out Quvenzhane Wallis negatively. E! Correspondents referred to the Oscar nominee as ‘Little Q’ and ‘Annie’ (in reference to her being cast in the upcoming remake) which started a firestorm of tweets in the vein of:

And then there was Oscar host Seth MacFarlane who delivered the following during the broadcast:

“To give you an idea of how young she is, it’ll be 16 years before she’s too young for Clooney,”

For the youngest Oscar nominee in history, Quvenzhane Wallis has sure had quite a big storm of negativity surrounding her; none of which was invited or called for. Maybe this time the call for professionalism moving forward will be answered. Social media isn’t going anywhere, learn the proper etiquette and remember, once it is on the Internet, it is out there forever.

Article Sources:

http://thecontributor.com/onion-hot-water-calling-9-year-old-oscan-nominee-c-twitter
https://www.facebook.com/TheOnion/posts/10151500974969497
http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/quvenzhane-wallis-called-the-c-word-by-the-onion-on-oscar-night-website-under-fire-2013252
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2284169/Fury-The-Onion-brands-year-old-Oscar-nominee-Quvenzhan-Wallis-c–shocking-tweet-says-deserve-better.html