The Supreme Court Sets the Actual Malice Standard for Public Controversies

In defamation, you're not supposed to have your opinions. But defamation standards are designed to allow people to also be wrong on facts and not create strict liability for a criticism of a public controversy. The idea is you need to have wiggle room for people to be wrong, even on facts,. If the allegation of the defamation is about something unrelated to why that person is a public figure, then the actual malice standard doesn't apply.