Deadspin, the sport-focused “news” site that falsely accused a Native American boy at a Kansas City Chiefs game of wearing blackface, is now officially dead.
Okay, not officially, but its entire editorial staff got laid off after a European startup called Lineup Publishing bought it from its original owner, G/O Media.
The New York Post provided more detail; a memo from G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller said Lineup would “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.”
While the Post noted that this only added up to 11 staffers, what made it funnier according to Daily Mail is that they were only given 30 minutes to kick bricks, and some did not even get the memo (literally) in time and only found out secondhand since they were locked out of company laptops.
Barstool Sports’ “El Presidente” Dave Portnoy posted a video of himself floating in his pool celebrating Deadpsin’s closure, asking how many times he could pop a bottle of champagne “for the same g*****n company?”
Deadspin is dead. Again. You hate to see it @stoolpresidente pic.twitter.com/Vn7yXp188u
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) March 11, 2024
Other posters on Twitter/X have reveled in mocking Deadspin’s demise, saying it was karma for the “blackface” incident from November.
BREAKING: The entire staff at Deadspin has been laid off by its new owners
Carron J. Philips is now unemployed and is simultaneously getting sued for defaming Holden Armenta, a 9-year-old boy
Happy ending aren’t just for fairy tales pic.twitter.com/Xosb4l1yU6
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 11, 2024
DEADSPIN is a fake news media company that falsely accused a 9 year old boy of wearing blackface at a Chiefs game.
In response, the boy’s family is now suing them to hell for defamation.
Today, Deadspin was forced to lay off their entire staff and sell the company.
Fake News… pic.twitter.com/p2NUUuUomr
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 11, 2024
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) March 11, 2024
And this one’s my personal favorite:
Leave it to an Indian to turn Deadspin into a burial ground… https://t.co/u3ECl7YRcD
— Kaleb (@kalebingreenbay) March 11, 2024
As you may recall, Holden Armenta was at the Chiefs-Raiders game wearing a Native American headdress and wearing black and red face paint. Deadspin’s Carron Phillips accused the kid of blackface, having only shown the black half of his face, which earned Deadspin a big fat defamation lawsuit from the Armenta family, which happens to have Native American ancestry. In fact, the kid’s granddad was actually a leader for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, as Catherine detailed in February.
Related: Family of Young Chiefs Fan Accused of ‘Blackface’ Files Suit Against Deadspin
Don’t you just enjoy happy endings where the bad guys get precisely what they deserve?