[supercat]

Making that statement as a declarative charge is, in fact, defamation if untrue. Making it as an opinion, or as speculation, on the other hand, is not.

The question, I think, is whether a reasonable person reading the statements would have reason to believe that the author had more basis for believing them to be true than he, in fact, had. In many libel actions, a person who is sued may defend himself by showing that he had sufficiently good reason to believe the statement to be true.

[lugsoul]

I disagree with your characterization but, even if it were the case, reading something on the internet is never going to be construed as a reasonable basis for a belief sufficient to justify a defamatory statement.