During the 2014 elections, The Boston Globe set the agenda for candidates like Charlie Baker and Martha Coakley-- and for the rest of the media.

And as the Globe flexed its editorial muscle, two of the paper's most prominent bylines in the Politics section belonged to reporters Frank Phillips and Jim O'Sullivan. From the Globe's cozy bureau high atop the State House, reporters Phillips and O'Sullivan churned out an array of stories that could make the difference between victory and defeat.

This week, The Scrum caught up with Phillips and O'Sullivan at the Globe's State House bureau where they described how the gatekeepers decide who and what to keep behind the gates, how they manage spin from the campaigns, and what the media hit and missed during the hotly contested 2014 campaigns. Talking with O'Sullivan and Phillips is fascinating because their insights about Massachusetts politics are so keen and because their mutual respect is leavened by a tension that's part generational and part ethnic (Phillips, a WASP; O'Sullivan, Irish) and carries a bit of an edge-- even when they're joking about it.

The Scrum is a weekly podcast that takes a closer look at politics and media from Beacon Hill to the Beltway. If you like what you hear, subscribe in iTunes.