That's not entirely true. "Mr. Smith goes to the brothel every Tuesday" can be defamatory yet true since it omits the crucial details that a) Mr. Smith is the g

That's not entirely true. "Mr. Smith goes to the brothel every Tuesday" can be defamatory yet true since it omits the crucial details that a) Mr. Smith is the garbageman and b) Tuesday is garbage collection day at the brothel. Of course, the defamatory aspect is that you are very clearly implying a false statement, and if the implied statement were true, it would of course fail to be defamatory.