The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.

Out on a Limb
“Although U.S. officials said they were still trying to determine who had carried out the assaults, signs pointed to radical Islamists as the likely perpetrators.”–Washington Post, Sept. 13

Questions Everybody Is Asking 
TheRightScoop.com lives up to its name by transcribing a conversation among reporters before Mitt Romney’s press conference yesterday, which was captured on an open mic:

Unidentified reporter: . . . pointing out that the Republicans . . . *unintelligible* . . . Obama . . .

CBS reporter: That’s the question.

Unidentified reporter: *unintelligible 

CBS reporter: Yeah that’s the question. I would just say do you regret your question.

Unidentified reporter: Your question? Your statement?

CBS reporter: I mean your statement. Not even the tone, because then he can go off on… 

Unidentified reporter: And then if he does, if we can just follow up and say “but this morning your answer is continuing to sound . . .” *becomes unintelligble*

CBS reporter: You can’t say that . . .

**Later** 

CBS reporter: I’m just trying to make sure that we’re just talking about, no matter who he calls on we’re covered on the one question.

Unidentified reporter: Do you stand by your statement or regret your statement?

The “CBS reporter” apparently is Jan Crawford, whose work we generally admire. And in itself, this conversation doesn’t seem as invidious to us as it does to some of our friends on the right. The reporters have a common interest in getting an answer to a question about the big news of the day, and if they don’t know who’s going to get called on, this sort of cooperation makes sense.

But we were watching the press conference, and here was the bizarre thing: Not only did the first reporter Romney call on ask the agreed-upon question, but so did the second and the third and so on, “a total of seven times,” by Newsbusters.org‘s account. The press has been likened to a pack, but it looks to us more like a hive: carefully coordinated, with a hierarchy of rank but not much distinction between individuals.

For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”