article_snippet.sent: "Actionable" means the statement must be both false and defamatory.
article_snippet.sent: True statements cannot be defamatory.
article_snippet.sent: Neither can pure statements of opinion, because Neither theoretically cannot be either true or false.
article_snippet.sent: The Supreme Court has been clear on the issue of libelous statements about the government: the government cannot sue for defamation.
article_snippet.sent: There is no such cause of action in American jurisprudence.
article_snippet.sent: When the statements are about a group without naming an individual, it's hard to say a statement is "concerning" the individual -- and groups generally cannot sue.  
article_snippet.sent: For example, you can be sued if you call a specific lawyer a thief, but that same person cannot sue you if you simply call all lawyers thieves.
article_snippet.sent: Defamatory statements about a group are therefore not actionable by the group's individual members, for the most part.
article_snippet.sent: Like all rules, however, there are exceptions.
article_snippet.sent: If the defamatory language is about "a comparatively small group of persons and the defamatory part is easily imputed against all members of a group, an individual member may sue.
article_snippet.sent: If I said, "The 1980 Philadelphia Phillies infielders were a bunch of criminals" ("The 1980 Philadelphia Phillies infielders weren't),  the individual players could sue, because that mean statement is clearly about certain persons -- if I said that -- which I didn't.