The left-wing sports website that smeared a young Kansas City Chiefs fan as a racist has backed down amid the threat of a massive lawsuit.
In an abrupt change of course, Deadspin has now added a lengthy editor’s note to the defamatory piece accusing nine-year-old Holden Armenta of wearing “blackface” with a deceptively edited image that failed to show the other side of his face painted in red, his favorite team’s official colors.
New photo of the person @Deadspin accused of being a vile racist who wore blackface at a football game.
(They tried to ruin this kid’s life)https://t.co/MEhDaQIIlS pic.twitter.com/5dvud08npf
— Bobby Burack (@burackbobby_) November 27, 2023
The outlet was fiercely criticized for the dishonest piece by race-obsessed black writer Carron Phillips who was blasted as an “unapologetic racist” over his despicable characterization of the child – who is of Native American heritage – as a white supremacist.
This week, Shannon and Raul Armenta who are the parents of the wrongly accused young Chiefs fan lawyered up, hiring Clare Locke LLP, a top defamation law firm to demand a retraction of the hit piece or else.
“These Articles, posts on X, and photos about Holden and his parents must be retracted immediately,” read a letter obtained by NewsNation.
There’s nothing quite like threatening to sue the bastards to get their attention and Phillips’ hit piece has now been gutted with the misleading image removed.
Deadspin: “We regret any suggestion that we were attacking the fan.”
In other words, “We regret that we are so soulless we did not realize how it would look to the world when we lied and claimed that a nine-year-old was committing a racism and deserved a social media pile on.” pic.twitter.com/4jMwMNd0YC
— Megan Basham (@megbasham) December 8, 2023
“On Nov. 27, Deadspin published an opinion piece criticizing the NFL for allowing a young fan to attend the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Nov. 26 wearing a traditional Native American headdress and, based upon the available photo, what appeared to be black face paint,” the editor’s note begins.
“Unfortunately the article drew attention to the fan, though our intended focus was on the NFL and its checkered history on race, an issue which our writer has covered extensively for Deadspin. Three years ago, the Chiefs banned fans from wearing headdresses in Arrowhead Stadium, as well as face painting that ‘appropriates American Indian cultures and traditions.’ The story’s intended focus was the NFL and its failure to extend those rules to the entire league,” the note reads.
“We regret any suggestion that we were attacking the fan. To that end, our story was updated on Dec. 7 to remove any photos, tweets, links, or otherwise identifying information about the fan,” Deadspin states. “We have also revised the headline to better reflect the substance of the story.”
Being the stand-up guy that he is, the author of the vile and defamatory article that may have permanently traumatized poor young Holden has locked down his account on the X platform.
(Screenshot: X)
One big thing missing from Deadspin’s note? An apology.
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