Young Chiefs fan's defamation lawsuit against Deadspin to move forward: 'Crossed the

[4th and Long]

Young Chiefs fan's defamation lawsuit against Deadspin to move forward: 'Crossed the fine line'

A Delaware judge ruled Monday that the Armenta family’s lawsuit against Deadspin for accusing their son of wearing "blackface" at a Chiefs game last year can proceed.

In 2023, Deadspin writer Carron Phillips wrote an article using an image of nine-year-old Holden Armenta sporting black and red Kansas City Chiefs face paint at a game, showing only the black half of his face. Phillips accused Holden of finding a way to "hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time" and accused his parents of teaching him "hatred."

Holden’s parents Raul Jr. and Shannon later filed a lawsuit in February accusing the sports blog of maliciously attacking Holden by selectively posting only one half of his face and accusing them of racism.


Holden Armenta, 9, attends the Chiefs-Raiders game on Nov. 26 in Las Vegas.

On Monday, Superior Court Judge Sean Lugg denied Deadspin’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, agreeing that the blog posted "provable false assertions" as facts rather than opinion.

"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," the judge wrote.


"Having reviewed the complaint, the court concludes that Deadspin’s statements accusing [Holden] of wearing black face and Native headdress ‘to hate black people and the Native American at the same time,’ and that he was taught this hatred by his parents, are provable false assertions of fact and are therefore actionable," Lugg added.


Deadspin posted an image showing only one half of Holden's face at a Chiefs game.

Lugg also refused to dismiss the case based on the assertion that the case should have been filed in the Armenta family’s home state of California rather than Delaware, where Deadspin’s parent company G/O Media resides. G/O Media later sold Deadspin to Lineup Publishing one month after the lawsuit was filed.

A representative from G/O Media declined to comment to Fox News Digital.

Deadspin did not retract the original article. However, an editor’s note was added to address the controversy.

"We regret any suggestion that we were attacking the fan or his family. To that end, our story was updated on Dec. 7 to remove any photos, tweets, links, or otherwise identifying information about the fan. We have also revised the headline to better reflect the substance of the story," the note read.

The headline was also changed from "The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress" to "The NFL Must Ban Native Headdress And Culturally Insensitive Face Paint in the Stands."



Judge Lugg agreed the original article asserted its accusations of racism as "provable false assertions of fact."


Phillips initially doubled down on his accusations in a since-deleted X post.

"For the idiots in my mentions who are treating this as some harmless act because the other side of his face was painted red, I could make the argument that it makes it even worse. Y'all are the ones who hate [M]exican but wear sombreros on cinco [de Mayo]," Phillips said.

[Buddy Rich]

From the deadspin site -

Carron J. Phillips

Saginaw Native. Morehouse Man. Syracuse (Newhouse) Alum. 2019 & 2020 NABJ Award Winner. 2016 PABJ Journalist of the Year. I only eat my wings lemon-peppered. And I like brown liquor & brown women.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by POND_OF_RED

Oh, I completely agree. The only people I know calling for an end to the chop have never been on a reservation in their entire lives. The fact of the matter is that they still have so many issues they deal with on a daily basis like their women disappearing off the reservation in alarming numbers. No one on a reservation has time to worry about an NFL team doing the tomahawk chop.

The parents put the kid in this situation, though. Just own up to being bad parents. Don’t try and make a fortune off your kids misery. Do you think them filing this lawsuit will help people forget about this so the kid can get on with his life? Deadspin can definitely go **** themselves, but let’s not reward the kids parents for being a couple ****ing obtuse morons.

Regardless of parental responsibility the first question a journalist should ask is… do I want to ruin this kid? And if that doesn’t compel you to at least reach out to the family and get their context and you publish the story anyway, and worse you use a kid as a prop for outrage clicks, you need your ethics checked.
If you get context from the family, your second question should still be… do I want to ruin this kid

[POND_OF_RED]

Originally Posted by digger

I think as a Chumash-Indian that the tribe would be the ones who have the right to be offended. And no one else.



I guess you would also have or point out a problem this...



Boy Scouts Tribe of mic-o-say:

His “tribe” already made a statement saying they didn’t support the cultural appropriation.

https://santamariatimes.com/news/loc...c534d.amp.html

"The tribe we’re from doesn’t even wear that type of headdress," he added, noting that the specific regalia worn by Holden was merely a costume piece.”

…

Tribal Chairman Kenneth Kahn, of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, issued a statement Thursday to the Santa Ynez Valley News.

“We are aware that a young member of our community attended a Kansas City Chiefs game in a headdress and face paint in his way of supporting his favorite team. Please keep in mind that the decisions made by individuals or families in our community are their own and may not reflect the views of the broader tribal community," Kahn said. "As a federally recognized tribe, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians does not endorse wearing regalia as part of a costume or participating in any other type of cultural appropriation."

Are we really still needing to point to the Boy Scouts being a problem?! I thought all the sexual abuse did that years ago.

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by POND_OF_RED

Oh, I completely agree. The only people I know calling for an end to the chop have never been on a reservation in their entire lives. The fact of the matter is that they still have so many issues they deal with on a daily basis like their women disappearing off the reservation in alarming numbers. No one on a reservation has time to worry about an NFL team doing the tomahawk chop.

The parents put the kid in this situation, though. Just own up to being bad parents. Don’t try and make a fortune off your kids misery. Do you think them filing this lawsuit will help people forget about this so the kid can get on with his life? Deadspin can definitely go **** themselves, but let’s not reward the kids parents for being a couple ****ing obtuse morons.

I would bet that these parents allowed their kid to dress like that for many a Chiefs game and never had an issue. Don't assume that there was any malicious intent. Otherwise, you are just another Carron.

[BleedingRed]

Dude who the **** is this MULT.... The sheer CRINGE of being offended for something you have no connection to.

[notorious]

Pond of Red is a deadspin writer?

[Dunerdr]

Pond of red is def a mult.

[POND_OF_RED]

Originally Posted by BleedingRed

Dude who the **** is this MULT.... The sheer CRINGE of being offended for something you have no connection to.

Mult?! I’ve been posting on this board way before your mom even gave you internet privileges.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

The dude also double down after taking heat for the article

[saphojunkie]

Fun fact: Chumash is in the same place where Sideways takes place. Wine country, casino… I’m thinking I might head up there this weekend and tell some marines Semper Fi

[Couch-Potato]

Come'on! ...I'm all for being politically correct but this a damn child just out there having fun supporting his team. ZERO maliciousness involved, obviously. SMH