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P1332 To justify a trial court's decision to quash a subpoena designed to discover the identity of prospective defendants in a defamation action, plaintiff must show that a defamatory statement was made; in the course of a heated discussion on an internet message board, it was obvious that an anonymous poster's references to plaintiffs as "scum bag," "cockroach," "boobs, losers and crooks," and the statement that one plaintiff was willing to engage in oral sex with another even though she had fat thighs, a fake medical degree, vaginal flatulence, and poor hygiene were juvenile, crude, satirical name-calling hyperbole that reflect the immaturity of the speaker but cannot reasonably be read as asserting actual facts; in the absence of provably false assertion of facts, there can be no liability for defamation.CitationKRINSKY v DOE 6 (Yahoo Discovery) 159 CA4 1154 [See: McIntyre v Ohio Elections 514 US 334; Reno v ACLU 521 US 844; John B v Superior Court 38 C4 1177, T/AT 8/06; Lipton v Superior Court 48 CA4 1599, T/AT 9/96; Toshiba v Superior Court 124 CA4 762, P/AT 1/05]
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