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The Onion, a satirical news site, apologized today for a crude tweet posted during the Oscars about Quvenzhané Wallis, the 9-year-old actress nominated for best actress for her role in "Beasts of the Southern Wild."

"Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a c***, right?" read the tweet, which was deleted about an hour after it was posted.

While some of Oscars host Seth MacFarlane's jokes Sunday night were met with cool silence inside the Dolby Theater, Twitter users lashed back at The Onion for its tweet.

I have no idea what The Onion thought was going to happen when they dropped the c-bomb on a 9 year old girl. What a bunch of idiots.

— Calvin (@aurosan) February 25, 2013

@ theonion Identify the writer. Let him defend that abhorrent verbal attack of a child. You call it humor I call it horrendous.

— Wendell Pierce (@WendellPierce) February 25, 2013

That Onion Tweet: A Case Study in How to Lose Years of Goodwill Pretty Much Instantly.

— rachelsklar (@rachelsklar) February 25, 2013

Steve Hannah, CEO of The Onion, apologized today, saying, "No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire."

"It was crude and offensive - not to mention inconsistent with The Onion's commitment to parody and satire, however biting," he wrote in a statement posted on The Onion's website.

Hannah said the unidentified employees behind the tweet would be disciplined.

Wallis, who played Hushpuppy in "Beasts of the Southern Wild," was also ribbed during the awards broadcast by MacFarlane. He quipped at one point that "it'll be 16 years before she's too old for" George Clooney.