The media company behind the “blackface” post about a young football fan offered short notice to staff about the new “editorial vision for the brand.”
“…now who will be around to cancel 10-year-olds…”
Leaning heavily into the “spin” side of their now former property, parent company G/O Media reportedly sold sports blogging website Deadspin to European digital media company Lineup Publishing. The move likely came as a shock to staff as the Monday memo announcing the decision was said to have come 30 minutes before employees were locked out of their computers and let go.
“Deadspin’s new owners have made the decision to not carry over any of the site’s existing staff and instead build a new team more in line with their editorial vision for the brand,” read in part the memo senior editor Julie DiCaro had told the Daily Mail came a half hour before employees could no longer access company laptops.
“While the new owners plan to be reverential to Deadspin’s unique voice, they plan to take a different content approach regarding the site’s overall sports coverage,” the memo from G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller also stated.
According to the New York Post, the firings, amounted to 11 staffers based in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, and included senior writer Carron Phillips who was responsible for the November story about 9-year-old Holden Armenta, the Kansas City Chiefs fan who had been smeared with accusations of racism and for donning “blackface.”
The boy had attended a football game wearing a Native Headdress and with face paint of the team colors and, after Phillips’ coverage of the boy’s appearance went viral leading to the writer being slammed as an “unapologetic racist,” it was also learned Armenta’s grandfathers sits on the board of the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, California.
Writer pegged as ‘unapologetic racist’ for accusing child of wearing blackface https://t.co/2hRUtdT1TZ via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) November 29, 2023
In February, the family filed a defamation suit claiming they were denied both a retraction and an apology for the post about the boy that stated in part, “By selectively capturing from the CBS broadcast an image of H.A. showing only the one side of his face with black paint on it — an effort that took laser-focused precision to accomplish given how quickly the boy appeared on screen: Phillips and Deadspin deliberately omitted the half of H.A.’s face with red paint on it.”
“That Article falsely alleged that [Holden] had ‘found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time.’ It alleged that [Holden]’s parents, Shannon and Raul, ‘taught’ [Holden] ‘racism and hate’ at home,” the suit further stated in seeking unspecified damages.
The family’s attorney Libby Locke told the Post, “Journalism — and the country as a whole — is better today now that Carron Phillips no longer has a platform to target innocent kids with his agenda-driven writing.”
“We are also grateful to G/O Media for infusing the company with cash that can be used to pay the judgment the Armenta family is going to win against it,” she added.
After Outkick’s Clay Travis shared the memo from Spanfeller reactions to the news included that of Christina Pushaw who wrote, “Oh no, now who will be around to cancel 10-year-olds for wearing a headdress?”
Oh no, now who will be around to cancel 10-year-olds for wearing a headdress? https://t.co/MUrj6dQMka
— Christina Pushaw (@ChristinaPushaw) March 11, 2024
It should be noted that now-fired Deadspin hack Carron J. Phillips, who maliciously libeled a nine-year old KC Chiefs fan a few months back, has locked his Twitter account.
Maybe he should skip breakfast? pic.twitter.com/7rGDUZoL15— Donald Ward (@WardoftheStates) March 12, 2024
A perfect real life example of “Go woke, go broke!”
— RedBalloon | Free to Work (@RedBalloonWork) March 11, 2024
Love when the good guys win.
— Kelly (@kellytx2) March 11, 2024
Great news! Let kids be kids without smearing them as racists.
— The Vigilant Fox (@VigilantFox) March 11, 2024
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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