From the Grievance filed as we speak in Armenta v. G/O Media Inc. (Del. Tremendous. Ct.):
9-year-old H.A. loves the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs—and he loves his household’s Chumash-Indian heritage. On November 26, 2023, H.A. displayed that love by attending the Chiefs-Raiders NFL soccer sport sporting a Chiefs jersey and necklace, his face painted half-red and half-black, and a fancy dress headdress— simply as Chiefs followers and different avid sports activities followers have performed for many years.
Throughout the CBS tv broadcast, H.A. was proven for 3 seconds, the place the viewers can clearly see his red-and-black face paint. Instantly thereafter, CBS panned to a Raiders fan in black-and-white face paint. Collectively, they represented fervent followers with their faces painted for game-day battle, every sporting their workforce’s respective colours and costume garb ….
These few seconds supplied simply the chance for Deadspin Senior Author Carron Phillips to, on behalf of himself and his employer Deadspin, maliciously and wantonly assault a nine-year-old boy and his mother and father for Phillips’ personal race-drenched political agenda. By selectively capturing from the CBS broadcast a picture of H.A. displaying solely the one facet of his face with black paint on it—an effort that took laser-focused precision to perform given how shortly the boy appeared on display—Phillips and Deadspin intentionally omitted the half of H.A.’s face with crimson paint on it.
Armed with this misleadingly-edited picture, Phillips wrote an article, printed by Deadspin, entitled “The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress” (“the Article”).
The Article falsely alleged that H.A. had “found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time.” It alleged that H.A.’s mother and father, Shannon and Raul, “taught” H.A. “racism and hate” at dwelling. It deliberately painted an image of the Armenta Household as anti-Black, anti-Native American bigots who proudly engaged within the worst sort of racist conduct motivated by their household’s hatred for Black and Native People.
The issue with Phillips’ Article: actually none of it was true. H.A. didn’t put on blackface. “Blackface” is “dark makeup worn to mimic the appearance of a Black person and especially to mock or ridicule Black people.” Earlier than this controversy, nine-year-old H.A. had no thought what blackface was or the racist historical past behind it. And he actually didn’t put on black paint on half of his face to imitate or mock Black folks. He’s a baby, and till Deadspin and Phillips’ malicious accusation, it by no means occurred to nine-year-old H.A. that an individual might hate one other for the colour of their pores and skin. The reality is that H.A.’s face was painted in Chiefs’ workforce colours, black and crimson, cut up down the center—simply as myriad followers and workforce regalia have for many years.
Nor does H.A. hate Native People. He is Native American. And H.A.’s mother and father, Raul and Shannon Armenta, didn’t educate H.A. to hate Native People at dwelling. H.A.’s father, Raul, belongs to the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, and he works on the tribal reservation. And H.A.’s grandfather was a tribal elder. All through his childhood, H.A.’s mother and father have taught H.A. and his siblings the proud heritage, tradition, and traditions of their tribe—and so they rejoice that tradition and historical past proudly. H.A. didn’t put on a fancy dress headdress as a result of he was “taught hate at home”—he wore it as a result of he loves the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ soccer workforce and since he loves his Native American heritage.
By midday the identical day Deadspin printed the Article, Deadspin’s account on the social media website X (previously Twitter) was flooded with feedback displaying H.A.’s full face. At 11:51 AM, H.A.’s mom, Shannon, posted on Fb that H.A. was Native American and pleaded with Deadspin to “just stop already” in its try to create division ….
Deadspin and Phillips noticed all this. The day the Article was printed, they acknowledged that that they had seen H.A.’s full face, but they deliberately elected to not do something to mitigate the harm performed. As a substitute, Phillips took to X to name his critics “idiots.”
Later, Deadspin republished the Article with an deliberately deceptive replace (the “Republication”) that doubled down and additional defamed the Armenta household. It maintained all the defamatory falsehoods with full data—and ample proof—of their falsehood.
Over the following two weeks, the Armenta Household repeatedly wrote to Deadspin demanding that it retract the Article and apologize to the Armenta Household. Deadspin didn’t retract the Article, and it didn’t apologize. Reasonably, it printed a collection of additional “updates” that not solely didn’t right the document, however as a substitute established that Deadspin absolutely understood the Article’s extremely damaging and defamatory nature—whereas maliciously refusing to again down. And Deadspin’s legal professionals threatened the Armenta household with counter-legal motion ought to Raul and Shannon try to carry Phillips and Deadspin accountable for his or her false and defamatory Article.
Deadspin’s lies have induced the Armenta Household huge harm.
They’ve uncovered the household to a barrage of hate, together with demise threats (“I’m going to kill [H.A.] with a wood chipper”) and insults (calling H.A. a “p-ssy,” a “mother fucker,” and a “n-gg-r”). They’ve made Raul a pariah at work, forcing the household to contemplate shifting out of state. They usually have branded a nine-year-old little one with false allegations that can reside eternally on-line. H.A. has already suffered considerably—his check scores and grades have dropped at school, and he has proven emotional harm from the onslaught of adverse consideration.
Deadspin has gone too far. H.A. shouldn’t should reside together with his face being plastered on social media alongside false and defamatory accusations of racist conduct. His mother and father shouldn’t be compelled to reside with the false and defamatory allegation that they’re instructing “hate in the home.” And Raul and Shannon will not be bullied by Deadspin’s risk of counter-legal motion for vindicating their rights—and the rights of their nine-year outdated son. The Armenta Household brings this lawsuit to set the document straight and to carry Deadspin accountable for willfully spreading incendiary lies a couple of nine-year-old little one who it selected as a car for its race-baiting agenda….