Media & Politics                                                                                            Back to course page

Archive of materials on John Kerry's Military Service

Also see archive of articles on George Bush's record of service in the Texas Air National Guard

Possible approaches to this archive for summaries and and presentations:

• If you are a Kerry supporter, write a summary that gives full weight to claims made by critics of Kerry's military record.

• If you are a Bush supporter, write a summary that gives full weight to questions raised about the credibility of Kerry's critics.

• If you are a Bush supporter, write a summary that places John Kerry's opposition to the Vietnam war in its historical context.

• If you are a Kerry supporter, focus on the consequences of his decision to emphasize his military service rather than his opposition to the Vietnam war.

• If you are a Bush supporter, write a summary that takes account of the role of the Bush campaign in raising questions about Kerry's military service.

• Write a summary that deals only with journalistic issues.  For example, go through various articles and blog entries to see if professional reporters properly credited and or described their sources. This approach will yield interesting results if you compare information first reported by bloggers and then reported as "new discoveries" by mainstream journalists.

In all cases, remember that your job is to write a summary.  Do your best to keep your opinions out of your work.  Remember that trying to maintain a reasonable degree of objectivity is not the same as pretending that you have no opinions.  On the contrary, a balanced perspective requires you to challenge yourself to recognize ways in which your opinions color your perception and presentation of facts.  In this case, if you find yourself making pronouncements about the meaning of military service or other clearly ideological topics, stop, think, and get back on track.

Also, keep in mind that your summary will be very short.  Consequently, rather than trying to condense a massive pile of information, concentrate on one basic issue, question, or theme.