You might remember Holden Armenta. He was a then-nine-year-old who came to an NFL game with one half of his face painted black and the other painted red while wearing a Native American headdress (see the picture above), because he was a fan of Super Bowl contenders the Kansas City Chiefs.
(Also, you might have heard that Taylor Swift was dating Travis Kelcie who plays for the team, although that is not terribly relevant here.)
Here’s video of Armenta enjoying the game:
BREAKING: The family of a young Chiefs fan is suing after Deadspin reporter Carron Phillips accused the boy of wearing blackface.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 7, 2024
Good 🔥
The complaint was filed against G/O Media Inc. & blasts Deadspin for “maliciously & wantonly” attacking Holden Armenta.
“By selectively… pic.twitter.com/gxmhyhENOF
And, of course, this triggered Carron J. Phillips of Deadspin who ran an article accusing this nine-year-old boy of wearing ‘blackface,’ while showing a picture that deceptively only showed him in profile so you couldn’t see that only half of this nine-year-old’s face was painted black. We previously dragged Phillips and Deadspin for picking on this nine-year-old, and even reported when that nine-year-old child and his parents threatened to file suit.
Now, we learn that they have carried through on that threat to sue to protect the reputation of this nine-year-old boy:
Holden Armenta and his family have move ahead with filing a defamation lawsuit against Deadspin. https://t.co/o8tkV8ZFLB The publication clearly values the controversial work of Carron J. Phillips. It may now have to decide how much. https://t.co/EIkcC0Cj2X
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) February 7, 2024
...This is not going to help questions over the site's survival. https://t.co/1on1cveF8r Despite being on the chopping block, the editors still wanted to feature this type of writing. Any sale will now come with a lawsuit on falsely accusing a child of being a virulent racist.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) February 7, 2024
Recommended
Did we mention that the boy is only nine years old? We are being facetious of course, but our point in emphasizing it so much is because it really is the original sin with this entire controversy. Even if this child was acting racist as heck (and we think he wasn’t acting racist at all), he’s nine years old and he shouldn’t be put on blast this way. If Phillips felt the need to complain about the situation, he shouldn’t have used any image or video of the kid in the first place. A description would have sufficed.
Frankly, this author debated whether to mention this kid name at all or to show his picture, but Deadspin has unfortunately made him famous and this piece is unlikely to contribute to make him more so. Further, this article defends the kid, which is a different moral calculus. We think it is worthwhile that if someone Googled ‘Holden Armenta’ that they might find this piece where we defend the kid.
And we should point out that we draw a distinction between a non-black person wearing black paint on your face—even if it covers their entire face—and wearing ‘blackface.’ The distinction in our minds is a matter of intent. If you wear the stuff to try to pass yourself off as either a black person or looking like a black person, as former Governor of Virginia Ralph Northam did, that is blackface. (Northam admitted in a press conference that he used shoe polish on his face to help him look like Michael Jackson, clearing up any question of whether or not he had worn blackface.) But if you are presenting it as just as paint that happens to be black, like this kid was plainly doing, then that is not blackface. Indeed, we have read the complaint and it makes exactly the same argument about the definition of blackface, citing Webster’s Dictionary as a source.
Having read the complaint, we think they’ve got a good chance of winning and getting massive damages. First, the law firm is the same one that sued Fox News on behalf of Dominion. How did that go for Fox News? Second, we think the complaint is plainly sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss and the facts alleged largely make Deadspin and Phillips look absolutely terrible. For instance, Phillips also claimed that wearing the Native American headdress was racist against Native Americans. But allegedly the kid is Native American, which means that even if you buy into the essentially racist theory of cultural appropriation, the kid is allowed to wear it. And once again, they are doing this to a nine-year-old kid. The jury is likely to be absolutely furious at Deadspin and Phillips over this.
Indeed, the complaint alleges that Deadspin threatened the family with some kind of counterclaim and holy crap that is very questionable lawyering. This isn’t legal advice, but if this author represented Deadspin, we would urge them to pretty much disappear the article, offer to write a complete mea culpa piece if the family wants it at the same Internet address the original article was at (they might prefer them never to mention it again), as well as offering a substantial settlement that admits they were wrong and offers some money to boot. And we would suggest that Deadspin ask themselves if they want to keep Phillips on staff when he exercised such terrible judgment—perhaps using a promise to fire Phillips as a way to save money on the settlement. Reportedly firing Tucker Carlson was part of the Fox News settlement. Otherwise, Deadspin looks likely to suffer a loss they are going to have trouble surviving.
Deadspin’s parent company G/O Media was just sued by the parents of Holden Armenta for defamation.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) February 7, 2024
The 49-page filing in Delaware demands a jury trial.
It alleges Deadspin defamed 9-year-old Holden by smearing him as a racist against Native Americans.
This will be expensive. pic.twitter.com/tgcprOgghc
BREAKING: The parents of the defamed 9-year-old Chiefs fan are suing Deadspin.
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 7, 2024
Deadspin smeared Holden Armenta (9) and falsely accused him of blackface & racism, leaving out the half of his face painted red (Chiefs colors). His grandfather is a Native American tribesman.
The… pic.twitter.com/KZUcFoIJoF
The cut off text reads:
The firm representing the Armentas won a $786M media defamation lawsuit last year.
… against Fox News. He’s leaving out that the firm won against Fox News. We are not too happy about the outcome of that suit, but we shouldn't leave out unpleasant facts.
Deadspin did not learn the Nick Sandmann lesson: it is generally not intelligent to try to make minors the face of white supremacy, or whatever it is you’re ruining a kid’s life to accomplish. https://t.co/WFS75Dn36i
— Luke Glaser (@LukeGlaser1) February 7, 2024
https://t.co/DShAnILCSL pic.twitter.com/mHzrPWDhV9
— Jon AweXome-Best Life (@RealStarMan) February 7, 2024
The lengths @Deadspin took to smear and cancel a young kid to create and push the left's false narrative of racial hate and divide is exactly what's wrong with the Left. And then to threaten the family if they sued @Deadspin for blatantly lying?? Despicable. https://t.co/woIFKUs2PA
— William A Byrnes, Jr 🐫💨 (@bb_icetime) February 7, 2024
I mean that's gotta be worth at least $83.4 million. https://t.co/1tZEXuph25
— Norm Peterson (@NormPeterson14) February 7, 2024
It makes more sense than the recent Trump defamation judgment.
Destroy them. Make them go the way of Gawker. It's the only way this kind of thing stops. https://t.co/xpIjOel0Y3
— naut (@theycallmenaut) February 7, 2024
As a native american I found what they did to that kid and tribe was appalling. Lets see Trump ordered to pay $83M. Pay Holden 5 times that!
— Jon L’Orange (@ApacheRailroad) February 7, 2024
Deadspin— definition of FAFO—💯 pic.twitter.com/PtUntn48TF
— Liberacrat Media™️ (@Liberacrat_) February 7, 2024
We’re pretty sure that’s a reference to Elizabeth Warren and Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.
Time to pay those reparations @Deadspin @carronJphillips https://t.co/qeGoAg7BPv
— Alex Rosen (@iFightForKids) February 7, 2024
Heh.
I hope they bankrupt Deadspin.
— Mark Pukita (@mpukita) February 7, 2024
A true FAFO moment!
👇👇👇 https://t.co/GeuEdrjDM3
@Deadspin you F’d around. Now you’re about to find out👇💯 pic.twitter.com/NWe5NZA8zt
— Liberacrat Media™️ (@Liberacrat_) February 7, 2024
Well-illustrated.
Couldn't there be different interpretations of the situation, and might there be a valid reason for the reporter's actions??
— ZAQ RIDER (@zaqrider) February 7, 2024
We would be hard pressed to imagine any scenario where it makes sense to attack a nine-year-old kid in that manner for behavior that isn’t actually criminal. And we suspect the truth is that the reporter was predisposed to see bigotry everywhere.
Deadspin will need to settle this case quietly and as quickly as possible.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) February 7, 2024
It’s going to cost them millions but if they go to trial it will likely cost them the whole company.
They have no defense here other than blaming their reporter.
Good for Holden Armenta and his family.
Actually, we suspect they should settle it loudly, being willing to be very vocal in explaining how they screwed up. Being willing to suffer that humiliation might make the family willing to settle for a lower dollar amount. It’s what we would be likely to tell them.
Finally, Native Patriot says he has created a fundraiser to get Armenta to the Super Bowl. We can’t vouch for it, but you might look into it and consider donating:
— 🪶Native Patriot 🇺🇸 (@LaNativePatriot) February 3, 2024
Then again, if Armenta does well in this suit, next time he might be able to buy box seats. Maybe he could hang out with Taylor Swift? Jokes aside, he seems like a cool kid who literally didn’t deserve any of this.
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