The news from a Denver CBS reporter's interview with Mitt Romney wasn't what he said, but rather what the reporter was prohibited from asking. Romney, apparently, is in no mood to talk about Todd Akin or abortion, after a week in which the former made the latter a dangerous issue.

Akin, you'll recall, is the U.S. representative and Republican candidate for Senate, who on Sunday said an exemption for rape victims in an abortion ban wasn't necessary because, "if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." Romney and other Republicans pleaded with Akin to drop out of the race and just get out of the national news cycle, but he refused. Now both Akin and abortion are apparently verboten topics in Romney's on-the-road interviews. And no wonder: Left-leaning media love his screwy quote. Politico's Dylan Byers notes that Akin's name has been mentioned 325 times on lefty MSNBC and just 78 times on right-leaning Fox News.

Update (5:18 p.m. EDT): A spokesman for the Romney campaign emailed Politico's Dylan Byers about the banned questions: "This is not how we operate. The matter is being addressed."

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at amartin at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Adam Martin