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Thanks for the helpful response. If it is a mere opinion, it would not constitute libel. For something to be libelous, it must be an assertion of fact - it mus

Thanks for the helpful response. If it is a mere opinion, it would not constitute libel. For something to be libelous, it must be an assertion of fact - it must also be false and tend to injure the reputation of the party within the community. Isn't every opinion an assertion of fact? If I say "American cars suck" or "Apple mistreats its developer community", I'm expressing what I believe to be the truth, not just my opinion. What's the distinction between opinions and assertions of fact?

grellas 17y ago
I don't think every opinion is an assertion of fact in that true opinion is by its nature unprovable: "I think Apple makes lousy products" may be what I think (which I don't, by the way) but no one would take it as anything beyond that. Opinion is basically non-actionable under libel laws as long as it falls in the unprovable category. You make an excellent point, though, in picking up on this issue. No less an authority than the U.S. Supreme Court (in the 1990 Milkovich case) expressly rejected what it called "the creation of an artificial dichotomy" between fact and opinion and held that statements couched as opinions can be libelous if they imply false and defamatory facts. So, if you say, "In my opinion, politician x is a drug dealer," your statement could be found to be defamatory. For a good discussion on this, see http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/opinion-and-fair-comment-privileges http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/opinion-and-fair-comm....