Judge slaps down motion to dismiss lawsuit against Deadspin for falsely accusing young Chiefs fan of racism



A lawsuit against Deadspin will proceed after a judge found that the news outlet could be liable for defamation against a 9-year-old boy accused of racism over his Kansas City Chiefs costume.

In Nov. 2023, Deadspin writer Carron Phillips scolded a child for appearing at a game between the Raiders and the Chiefs with a Native American headdress and face paint. Phillips faced immediate online backlash after some realized that he had used a photo of only one side of the child's face to make it appear as if it was blackface.

'In its description of the child, [Deadspin] crossed the fine line protecting its speech from defamation claims.'

The family of the boy demanded that the publication retract the article and said that they had received furious vitriol, including some death threats. In their defense, the family pointed out their Chumash tribe lineage. When Deadspin merely edited the article and neglected to formally apologize, the family decided to file a lawsuit.

The publication argued in court that it was not liable for defamation because the article was based on opinion, but Superior Court Judge Sean Lugg disagreed and ruled that the lawsuit could proceed.

“Deadspin published an image of a child displaying his passionate fandom as a backdrop for its critique of the NFL’s diversity efforts and, in its description of the child, crossed the fine line protecting its speech from defamation claims,” Lugg wrote.

He went to cite specific claims in the article that the child was taught to hate by his parents and that he wore the paint to insult Native Americans and blacks as "provable false assertions of fact and are therefore actionable."

Since the original article published, Deadspin was sold and the entire staff was laid off.

“Deadspin and Carron Phillips have never shown a morsel of remorse for using a 9-year-old boy as their political football,” read an email statement from Elizabeth Locke, an attorney for the family. “The Armenta family is looking forward to taking depositions and presenting this case to a jury at trial.”

The boy would not be allowed to wear his costume at the Kansas City Chiefs stadium because the organization has banned headdresses since 2020.

In February, he attended the Super Bowl between the Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers in his headdress and face paint but not with one side painted black.

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Entire staff at Deadspin fired months after they smeared 9-year-old Chiefs fan as a racist



Just five months after Deadspin tried to smear a 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan as a racist, all of the sports media outlet's employees have been fired as a part of a buyout.

Employees received an email announcing the sale, and some were told at a meeting before their access to the company's digital resources was cut off.

"Recently we were approached by the European firm Lineup Publishing expressing interest in purchasing Deadspin to add to their growing media holdings," the email read in part.

Other employees posted about the decision on social media.

"So we just got half an hour's notice that Deadspin has been sold to a European startup and they're not taking any staff. Already locked out a company slack and our laptops," posted Julie DiCaro on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Deadspin was excoriated by many after it tried to misrepresent the costume worn by a young fan of the Kansas City Chiefs as "blackface." Critics immediately slammed the outlet by pointing out that they had used a misleading photo only showing one side of the child's face and not the other, which was colored in red.

In February, the family of the boy named Holden Armenta filed a defamation lawsuit against Deadspin. The Armenta family said they have received "a barrage of hate, including death threats" as a result of the article.

“It intentionally painted a picture of the Armenta Family as anti-Black, anti-Native American bigots who proudly engaged in the worst kind of racist conduct motivated by their family’s hatred for Black and Native Americans," read the lawsuit.

The family also pointed out that the boy's grandfather was on the board of the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, California. The lawsuit asks for unspecified damages.

The outlet changed the headline and added an editor's note while changing out the photograph in favor of one of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. The writer also protected his account on X after bizarrely accusing his detractors of being racist against Mexicans.

As a final insult, the email about the action also misspelled Deadspin.

“While the new owners plan to be reverential to Deadpin’s unique voice, they plan to take a different content approach regarding the site’s overall sports coverage," they wrote.

Here's more about the Deadspin debacle:

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Family of Kansas City Chiefs fan smeared as racist files lawsuit against Deadspin



The family of a 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan smeared as a racist has filed a defamation lawsuit against Deadspin for its dishonest reporting.

Holden Armenta was lambasted by writer Carron Phillips at the sports news outlet after wearing a Native American headdress to a game between the Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders in November.

"It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once. But on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, a Kansas City Chiefs fan found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time," wrote Phillips at the time.

Immediately after the outlet published the article, critics pointed out that it had used a misleading photograph only showing one half of the child's face in order to make it appear as if he was wearing blackface.

"Yeah, just ruin this young fans life with your lying headline and misleading picture. This wasn’t black face, nor was it about race. It’s about support for the team," read one critical tweet.

Armenta's parents, Shannon and Raul, said that the report from Deadspin led to “the family to a barrage of hate, including death threats.”

The lawsuit claimed that the article misled readers by not including a full photograph of the boy with half of his face painted red and thereby “maliciously and wantonly" attacked "a nine-year-old boy and his parents for Phillips’ own race-drenched political agenda.”

The Armentas pointed out that their son's grandfather was on the board of the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, California, and yet, Deadspin refused to retract the article or apologize.

“It intentionally painted a picture of the Armenta Family as anti-Black, anti-Native American bigots who proudly engaged in the worst kind of racist conduct motivated by their family’s hatred for Black and Native Americans," the lawsuit read.

The lawsuit is asking for unspecified damages.

In 2020, the Chiefs decided to ban headdresses from being worn at their stadium, but Armenta was attending an away game in Las Vegas when he wore the headdress. The Chiefs went on to defeat the Raiders on their way to winning a trip to the Super Bowl, which will be held in Las Vegas on Sunday.

Here's an interview of Holden Armenta:

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