Deadspin falsely accused Holden Armenta of wearing 'blackface,' which led to his family filing a defamation lawsuit
Deadspin embarrassed themselves with this article: Greg Gutfeld
'The Five' co-hosts discuss a Deadspin writer falsely claiming a young Kansas City Chiefs fan was wearing 'blackface' during a game.
The liberal sports blog that smeared a 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan last year has cut its entire staff after being sold by its parent company, Fox News Digital has confirmed.
Deadspin went viral in November for an article accusing a child who wore red and black facepaint with a Native American headdress of wearing "blackface" and finding a way to "hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time." The 9-year-old boy is of Native American heritage and his parents have filed a defamation lawsuit against Deadspin.
Now, the entirety of Deadspin's workforce, including the writer who smeared the young football fan, have been forced out, according to a memo sent by Deadspin's former parent company G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller.
Deadspin's entire staff was laid off after its parent company G/O Media sold the liberal sports blog to European film Lineup Publishing. (Screenshot/Deadspin)
"I have some news to share regarding one of our sites in the G/O Media portfolio. Recently we were approached by the European firm Lineup Publishing expressing interest in purchasing Deadspin to add to their growing media holdings," Spanfeller told staff in the memo obtained by Fox News Digital. "After careful consideration, the G/O Media board of directors has decided to accept their offer. I do want to make it clear that we were not actively shopping Deadspin."
The memo, which was first obtained by The Daily Beast, continued, "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. 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. This unfortunately means that we will be parting ways with those impacted staff members, who were notified earlier today. I would like to thank them for their hard work and efforts that helped make Deadspin stand out in the crowded sports media space."
Lineup Publishing did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. G/O Media declined to comment.
G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller said Deadspin's new owner plans to "take a different content approach regarding the site’s overall sports coverage." (Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile for Collision via Getty Images)
Deadspin's mission, according to its X page, is purportedly to deliver sports news "without fear, favor or compromise," but in recent years has drawn more attention for its liberal activism and identity politics.
In 2021, Deadspin referred to former ESPN host Sage Steele as "the Black Candace Owens," inferring that Owens, a Black conservative commentator, was a White person. In 2022, the site was forced to issue a correction for its hit piece targeting San Francisco 49ers coach Mike McDaniel, calling him "another young, white guy" to become the "next hot NFL coaching prospect" when McDaniel is in fact biracial.
However, Deadspin was the subject of a major controversy running the headline "The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress."
Deadspin reporter Carron J. Phillips initially put a spotlight on an image of young Holden Armenta's profile, which only showed the half of his face with black face paint.
"The image of a Chiefs fan in Black face wearing a Native headdress during a road game leads to so many unanswered questions," Phillips wrote. "Why did the camera person give this fan the attention? Why did the producer allow that camera angle to be aired at all? Is that fan a kid/teenager or a young adult? Despite their age, who taught that person that what they were wearing was appropriate?"
Deadspin was hit with a defamation lawsuit against the family of Holden Armenta, the 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan the site accused of wearing "blackface." ((Screenshot/Jesse Watters Primetime))
After critics called out Deadspin's erroneous article, Phillips doubled down, writing on X ,"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]."
Several days later, Deadspin issued a mea cula after Armenta's family threatened to take legal action.
"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," Deadspin wrote in an editor's note in December. "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."
"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," Deadspin added.
Armenta's parents filed a lawsuit against Deadspin in February, claiming the website and Phillips selectively ran a photo that only showed one half of his face during the broadcast in question. The lawsuit accused Deadspin of maliciously attacking the 9-year-old.
"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 the screen: Phillips and Deadspin deliberately omitted the half of H.A.’s face with red paint on it," the complaint reads, via OutKick.
"H.A. did not wear a costume headdress because he was ‘taught hate at home’ — he wore it because he loves the Kansas City Chiefs football team and because he loves his Native American heritage."
OutKick and Fox News share common ownership.
Fox News' Ryan Gaydos and Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.
Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to
