The Onion is shutting down over an offensive tweet it made about 9-year-old best actress nominee Quvenzhane Wallis.
While the top awards were being handed out Sunday at the 85th Oscars, the satirical news organization sent out a message on its official Twitter account calling Wallis the C-word.
Jennifer Aniston was reportedly the only actress who thought the tweet was “hysterical”.
The tweet, sent out around 8:42 p.m. PST, quickly made the rounds on the social media website. An hour later, the offending message was deleted from The Onion’s feed and this morning The Onion announced that it would be shutting down.
According to sources in The White House, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were so angry about the tweet that they called the publishers of The Onion and then, well… this morning, The Onion reportedly announced that it would be closing their offices on March 1st.
The Onion also claimed responsibility for Jennifer Lawrence tripping on the way up the stairs to get her Oscar.
The C-word tweet wasn’t the only offensive tweet. They also tweeted the N-word, the D-word and the A-word. Plus they called Robert deNiro a “dago”. Seth MacFarlane was referred to by The Onion as a “stupid mick” and Wood Allen (who wasn’t even at the Oscars) was called the K-word.
The Academy also joined the chorus of those disapproving of The Onion’s “humor.” The official word from Quentin Tarantino was that The Onion was a bunch of “stupid beach sand n***ers”.
The Onion has always defended their writers and editors and used the protection of “satire” to hide behind their tweets and posts. But this time, they felt horrible. “We apologize to anybody and everybody we offended last night. Particularly all the c***ts, d****ags and a****es in H ollywood.”
The Editors and staff of The Onion are going to undergo “sensitivity training” sponsored by the Government and they hope to all be working for Jay Leno by the end of next month.
anybody else notice how many white men there are on staff? Perhaps better diversity would provide them with a better filtration system for really stupid tweets
Why are white men automatically evil?
Oh, all white men are not inherently evil (in my opinion). But a balance of people better ensures that dumb things (racist or sexist) might happen less. It's like a white person telling another white person that something they are saying isn't racist, it is less likely to be accurate than if one checks in genuinely with a non-white person for their real and lived experiences of racism. It could also be like my Chinese-mother-tongue husband telling me my French (a language he doesn't speak) is better than my Cantonese (a language he does speak) because he understood the French I was speaking. That's not a good sign that my French is any good at all, and most humbly, I barely speak both languages but I try really hard. *grin*.
So maybe if a woman (assuming the tweet was written by a man) or another woman parsed that tweet, or even a person of colour, someone who has more experience being on the receiving end of this type of treatment, they would have said, "Um … maybe that is totally inappropriate," or perhaps the culture within a more balanced-race/sex workplace would not have that word tossed around casually enough that a person would use it on a young child.
So as you can see, it isn't about the white guys being inherently evil, it is about the white guys being in an environment that allows certain habits and attitudes exist unchecked. In my opinion, of course.
We white people have everything to gain from living within mixed groups so that we can behave in ways less default white. If we are lucky enough to not get dumped in disappointment by those around us that we offend so often by our entitled habits.
Thank you for asking.
Whatever happened to "Freedom of Speech?" ;-p