context: Defendant also states incompletely the law on. publication of opinions ac companied by full disclosure of the facts on which they are based. Defendant is correct that "when an author outlines the facts available to him, thus making it clear that the challenged statements represent his own interpretation of those facts and leaving the reader free to draw his own conclusions, those statements are generally protected by the First Amendment."
citation_a.signal: no signal
citation_a.identifier: 145 F.3d 1067, 1067
citation_a.parenthetical: noting that opinions based on disclosed facts are not actionable "where the underlying facts are not actionable because they are nondefa-matory" and "where [the underlying facts] are not actionable because there is an absence of actual malice"
citation_a.sentence: Partington, 56 F.3d at 1157. This principle “assumes, however, that the factual basis itself is true.” Flowers, 310 F.3d at 1129; Standing Committee v. Yagman, 55 F.3d 1430, 1440 (9th Cir.1995) (“Where a publication sets forth the facts underlying its statement of opinion and those facts' are true, the Constitution protects that opinion from liability for defamation.” (internal quotations and alterations omitted)); Dodds, 145 F.3d at 1067 (noting that opinions based on disclosed facts are not actionable “where the underlying facts are not actionable because they are nondefa-matory” and “where [the underlying facts] are not actionable because there is an absence of actual malice”); Franklin, 10 Cal.Rptr.3d at 438. A speaker, therefore, properly finds protection in the First Amendment when he publishes opinions based either upon fully disclosed, true facts, see, e.g., Partington, 56 F.3d at 1154 (“Where, as here, an author writing about a controversial occurrence fairly describes the general events involved and offers his own personal perspective about some of its ambiguities and disputed facts, his statements should generally be protected by the First Amendment.”), or upon facts otherwise commonly known to the audience, such as facts that are a matter of public knowledge.
citation_b.signal: see
citation_b.identifier: 58 F.Supp.2d 1122, 1122
citation_b.parenthetical: dismissing Johnnie Cochran, Esq.'s suit against the New York Post, because the statement "history reveals that [Cochran] will say or do just about anything to win, typically at the expense of truth" was based upon disclosed facts, and not "on any additional, undisclosed facts not known to the public"
citation_b.sentence: See, e.g., Cochran, 58 F.Supp.2d at 1122 (dismissing Johnnie Cochran, Esq.’s suit against the New York Post, because the statement “history reveals that [Cochran] will say or do just about anything to win, typically at the expense of truth” was based upon disclosed facts, and not “on any additional, undisclosed facts not known to the public”); Goetz v. Kunstler, 164 Misc.2d 557, 563, 625 N.Y.S.2d 447 (N.Y.Sup.Ct.1995) (dismissing complaint of Bernhard Goetz against William Kunstler, Esq., in part because Mr. Kunstler’s “description of Goetz as a ‘murderous vigilante’ would be understood as an opinion, a mere hypothesis based upon facts both widely known and fully set forth”).