A Delaware judge ruled this week to allow a defamation lawsuit against sports media outlet Deadspin to proceed.
Last November, Deadspin sparked backlash after featuring an article about Caron J. Phillips attacking a 9-year-old boy wearing face paint and an Indian headdress at a Chiefs game. 'The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs' fans wearing blackface and Native headdresses.' heading read. The article goes further:
It takes a lot of effort to disrespect two groups of people at the same time. But on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, Kansas City Chiefs fans found a way to hate Black people and Native Americans at the same time.
As if jon gruden email It was coming back to life. Images of Chiefs fans in blackface wearing Native headdresses during road games raise many unanswered questions.
The article also raised questions such as why the cameras drew attention to the fan and why the fan's parents allowed the fan to dress like that. Also, the author only showed the side of the boy's face that was painted black, and not the other side that was painted red.
Holden's parents, Raul and Shannon Armenta, who were 9 years old at the time, filed a defamation lawsuit against Deadspin in February, but the outlet moved to dismiss the lawsuit. On Monday, Superior Court Judge Sean Rugg rejected the motion and allowed the lawsuit to proceed, agreeing that Deadspin had posted “provably false claims” that appeared to be fact rather than opinion. .
“Deadspin publishes an image of a child showing himself as a die-hard fan as a backdrop for criticizing the NFL's diversity efforts, and in its depiction of the child, the paper defends its speech against defamation claims. The judge wrote: reported By Fox News.
“After reviewing the complaint, the court determined that Deadspin’s statement [Holden] That he wore blackface and an Indigenous headdress “to hate Black people and Indigenous people at the same time,” and that he was instilled with that hatred by his parents, is a provable factual error and therefore actionable. ” added Mr. Rugg.
The original complaint alleges that the family received death threats, including a vow to kill someone with a “wood chipper,” and that the father's professional life was severely impaired, causing him to “become an outcast at work and the family having to relocate.” I had no choice but to consider it.” of the state. ”
“They made false allegations against a 9-year-old child, and that child will live forever online. Mr. HA has already suffered a great deal, his test scores and grades in school have declined, “The onslaught of negative attention has caused psychological damage,” the report said.
Articles about deadspin still exists All photos of the boy were removed under the headline, “The NFL should ban Native headdresses and culturally insensitive face paint in the stands.” The company also issued a correction, saying it “regrets” that the work was focused on a specific group of fans.
“We regret the suggestion that we are attacking our fans and their families. To that end, we updated our story on December 7th to include photos, tweets, links and other personally identifiable information about our fans. has been removed. The heading has also been revised to better reflect the content of the article.”
