Phillip Rucker and Ashley Parker

It looks from the outside like they have been used again and again to settle scores between waring factions of the WH. Very little ground breaking reporting that I can remember.

It seems like they have only reported what the white house wanted them too, or at least certain members at certain times instead of painting the public a full picture.

Let's just say that these two are no Woodward and Bernstein.

Of course, these two do produce a lot of clicks and headlines and maybe that is the model that WaPo has embraced, after a century of being a serious newspaper.

It has changed owners after all. Maybe this is the future.

OP, why are you replying to yourself? I like their reporting, I’m a gossip hound and love the trinkets of inside info. I don’t get my news only from them. If one did, that would be a problem. But their stories on Dump’s final days are great.

They do access journalism. There's a lot of demand for that kind of thing.

It's very evident from their writing that both of them loathe Trump and so it's a little ridiculous to say they've been "used" by the White House - they're both too smart for that and in any case they have definitely exposed a lot of dirty laundry even though it doesn't exactly amount to "news." Rucker in particular does more weekend analysis these days than reporting.

I love gossip just as much as the next guy. But these was the senior White House reporter for a major newspaper.

I don't dislike Rucker or Parker at all. I just think they might be better suited for People magazine.

They always seemed so giddy when coming back form the WH like two little schoolgirls. It was unprofessional to say the least.

OP, why are you singling out those two and not, say, Maggie Haberman, who does the exact same thing?

Eh.

Not impressed.

Their most recent article about Rudy being cut off is a great example. To me, it appears that article was used to put more pressure on Rudy and others. It served a purpose for the white house, which is typical with these two's articles. They always seem to serve a purpose for the WH.

Put pressure on Rudy? In what way?

Rucker co-authored a great book with Carol Leonnig. A Very Stable Genius.

I love both Parker and Rucker, but of the two of them Parker is the one who comes across as having fluffy tendencies, if you follow her on social media. Rucker always seems more serious to me, almost all the time, in what he says and writes, no matter the medium.

But I agree with R6.

r12, by threatening him, and making the pressure public. No wonder it's effective if even DLers can't suss this out.

What does "access journalism" mean? Is it a derogatory term?

I love both of them, btw. I always look forward to their appearances on MSNBC.

No, they're simply reporting that the White House is putting pressure on Rudy Giuliani. They're not doing the White House a favor by reporting that - in fact, they're making the White House look ridiculous by revealing the chaos in its legal arrangements. The White House would prefer that no one report that at all.

It's definitely true that every White House will leak information to reporters to get at their enemies, but that's not what's going on here. Rudy Giuliani couldn't care less about the Washington Post. If the White House wanted to get at someone, it would leak information to Fox.

These two should have ran a gossip column with all the juicy tidbits but had hard hitting reporters do the actual WH reporting. I think it would have made a difference in the last 4 years.

Just my opinion. I realize they are both very popular and have a lot of loyal readers.

Ashley Parker: hot off the WAPO press--

‘Oh God, I miss him’: Biden keeps returning to Trump as a cause of nation’s troubles

By Ashley Parker

March 26 at 5:30 AM ET
 (The Debrief:  An occasional series offering a reporter’s insights
)

"President Biden mentioned him early and often. He mentioned him overtly and obliquely. And he mentioned him on a range of issues, from immigration to human rights to Afghanistan.
In Biden’s first solo news conference on Thursday, the specter of former president Donald Trump loomed awkwardly — part foil, part scapegoat and, once, as a punchline.
“My predecessor, oh God, I miss him,” Biden said at one point, seeming to channel the just-can’t-quit-him fascination with the former president. A reporter had asked if Biden planned to run again in 2024, noting that unlike Trump, “you haven’t set up a reelection campaign yet, as your predecessor had by this time.”"