A Thought on Courage Campaign

libel

1. A written, printed, or pictorial statement that unjustly defames someone publicly. Prosecution of libel as a punishable offense puts some measure of restriction on freedom of the press under the First Amendment, but rightly so.

2. Defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.

3. The act or crime of publishing it.

4. Anything that is defamatory or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents.

Courage campaign guilty of libel? Perhaps. CNN and Comedy Central guilty of supporting it. Perhaps.

propaganda

1. Information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

2. Official government communications to the public that are designed to influence opinion. The information may be true or false, but it is always carefully selected for its political effect.

Courage Campaign resorting to temporarily successful techniques used by various military/governmental groups including the Khmer Rouge, Nazis, or Imperial Japan? (Inducing fear upon the ignorant to further a cause) Perhaps. Courage Campaign playing fair? Perhaps not.

freedom of speech

1. A civil right guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution 2. The right of people to express their opinions publicly without governmental interference, subject to the laws against libel, incitement to violence or rebellion, etc. Courage Campaign requests the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints withhold monetary and exclamatory support for Proposition 8. Courage Campaign forgetting freedom of speech? Perhaps.