The Economist, quoting the Indianapolis Star, Feb. 11, 2009:

Whether you support his policies or not, one of the commendable qualities of America's new president is his willingness to engage his opponents and own up to mistakes. Who knows if this will last through the inevitable dips in Mr Obama's popularity, but for now it's a nice break from the past. For example, Matthew Tully, a columnist for the Indianapolis Star, writes: When it comes to taking questions, it appears Obama is fair and balanced. In Elkhart, he made that point clear at the start, informing his audience that those who would be called upon to ask questions had not been pre-screened.

Hot Air, Feb. 12, 2009:

One of the little-remarked aspects of Barack Obama's first prime-time presidential presser involves the process of selecting the questioners. I hadn't noticed it, but in the past two days have been asked about whether Obama had preselected reporters rather than allow the White House press corps the customary process of vying for his attention. The Wall Street Journal's editors criticized Obama yesterday for his checklist... Obama seems to have made a decision that the first prime-time appearance was too critical to allow it to go unscripted.

Actually even that's too generous - Obama's reliance on lists of pre-screened reporters has been public knowledge since the transition:

The Obama news conferences tell that story, making one yearn for the return of the always-irritating Sam Donaldson to awaken the slumbering press to the notion that decorum isn't all it's cracked up to be. The press corps, most of us, don't even bother raising our hands any more to ask questions because Obama always has before him a list of correspondents who've been advised they will be called upon that day.

So maybe they just forgot.

Or maybe they're just making it up as they go along. That would explain the recurring myths that Obama ditches his teleprompter. Ditto for these two other inscrutable mysteries: