The Onion Apologizes for calling Quvenzhané Wallis the C-word

I need to come clean: I don't watch awards shows, nor do I follow the aftermath of who wore what, who won what, and wasn't that host horrible? (I'm not even touching Seth MacFarland's questionable "We Saw Your Boob" routine.) But when my Tumble feed blows up the way it did over a tweet from The Onion calling Quvenzhané Wallis, the nine-year-old actress in Beasts of the Southern Wild, the c-word, I can't tacitly stand by.

The Onion has since apologized . The tweet was pulled shortly after it went live, and this message was left on their Facebook page: (via Salon )

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

An apology was absolutely warranted in this case, but I can't understand why someone thought it was a good idea in the first place, even in the name of satire, to call a young actress the most vulgar slur one could call a woman. In my opinion, kids should be off limits, period.