Washington Post Reporter Gets Torn to Shreds and Praised for Different Parts of Same Ted Cruz Article
Washington Post reporter Ashley Parker was lauded for one grabby section of her article on Ted Cruz’s Cancun misadventure, but then lambasted when she highlighted another more lyrical paragraph in the story.
Parker posted a Stefon-inflected paragraph from her article “One night in Cancun: Ted Cruz’s disastrous decision to go on vacation during Texas storm crisis” to some high praise for its sensational summary of the episode.
“The Ted Cruz scandal had it all: The oversize canvas tote, awaiting its beach debut! The classic dad fleece half-zip! The 6 am scramble to book a return flight! The politician blaming his daughters! The police escort! The adorable puppy! The leaked texts!” Parker wrote.
The Ted Cruz scandal had it all: The oversize canvas tote, awaiting its beach debut! The classic dad fleece half-zip! The 6 am scramble to book a return flight! The politician blaming his daughters! The police escort! The adorable puppy! The leaked texts! https://t.co/Ji63ptUVVT pic.twitter.com/pn91BA6rmd
— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) February 19, 2021
That graf, as we say in the biz, earned praise for Parker on Twitter.
Ashley Parker ftw on this recap. Even my non-journalist friends are sharing the lead sentence.? https://t.co/7hiPbAhsnF
— Erin Richards (@emrichards) February 19, 2021
This is one of those rare cases where multiple exclamation points really are in order. https://t.co/oDEMo3ZfGr
— Juliet Eilperin (@eilperin) February 19, 2021
Lede de jour: “Usually, it takes at least one full day in Cancun to do something embarrassing you’ll never live down.” https://t.co/g4pLYrCoWe
— Jordan Rau (@jordanrau) February 19, 2021
This piece is so good and the lede.
— Molly Jong-Fast? (@MollyJongFast) February 19, 2021
I’ve expressed this privately to @AshleyRParker, but feel the need to say it publicly. There’s nothing wrong w half zip fleeces. Thank you. https://t.co/vioAef8PXO
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) February 19, 2021
But it was a different story when Parker highlighted a more humanizing passage of the story, tweeting “In a presser, Cruz blamed his daughters. And in that moment — clad in a Patagonia puffer jacket, unshaven and slightly haggard, seeming equal parts exhausted and exasperated and even perhaps a bit contrite — Ted Cruz did, in fact, look a lot like a dad.”
In a presser, Cruz blamed his daughters. And in that moment — clad in a Patagonia puffer jacket, unshaven and slightly haggard, seeming equal parts exhausted and exasperated and even perhaps a bit contrite — Ted Cruz did, in fact, look a lot like a dad.https://t.co/Ji63ptUVVT pic.twitter.com/n3xoGCN6P4
— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) February 19, 2021
The reactions from blue-checks were decidedly more negative this time around.
this is just embarrassing https://t.co/KVQuclX6u5
— Ross A. Lincoln (@Rossalincoln) February 19, 2021
he looked like a white guy, is the subtext here https://t.co/6esIU0OMzN
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) February 19, 2021
he had always been a father. but in that moment…(wipes away single tear)…he became a dad https://t.co/C7adEyx0hn
— Hanif Abdurraqib (@NifMuhammad) February 19, 2021
I wouldn’t carry water so heavy. Especially if you’re in Texas, where it might freeze and break your back. https://t.co/nATSwD0LWe
— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) February 19, 2021
Imagine inserting this style somewhere else?
“…and as the insurrection was happening, I realized the ill-fitting, slightly high-wasted jeans that guy was wearing while attacking the cop…was the same kind my grandpa used to wear. I realized, this had been tough on all of us.” https://t.co/eqajQ1Zr8x
— Cristela Alonzo (@cristela9) February 19, 2021
Gonna be real: this is the saddest, most pathetic, most shamelessly biased bit of writing I’ve seen in a while. Really, truly awful. https://t.co/Jj3nJOxJCy
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) February 19, 2021
Looked a lot like whose dad??? Maybe fatherhood looks like publicly throwing his kids under the bus in cowardice to some of y’all, but keep the rest of us out of it https://t.co/P6ejhCZCB7
— Wagatwe Wanjuki ?? ?? (@wagatwe) February 19, 2021
Casting Ted Cruz, in the end, as just another hapless sitcom dad was a reach I didn’t see coming. #KevinCanFHimself indeed https://t.co/Aa39sBJdKM
— Erin Keane (@eekshecried) February 19, 2021
This is… extremely weird. (Among much else, it raises the question of what “we,” the author and her intended, in-the-know audience, think “looks like a dad” means, against the backdrop of a life-or-death emergency for many families. Patagonia puffer jacket, indeed.) https://t.co/CQGU37aTuy
— Daniel D’Addario (@DPD_) February 19, 2021
Parker herself would later respond to the backlash, writing “To be clear, I am not arguing that blaming his kids makes him a dad (!!) — just that seeming haggard and exhausted and vaguely exasperated and a little weary is a sort of universal parental condition, especially amid the pandemic…”
To be clear, I am not arguing that blaming his kids makes him a dad (!!) — just that seeming haggard and exhausted and vaguely exasperated and a little weary is a sort of universal parental condition, especially amid the pandemic… https://t.co/q9azDqnCZd
— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) February 19, 2021
And in that moment, clad in the simultaneous adulation and revulsion of social media influencers, Parker looked every bit… a Twitterer.
