Hillary Clinton’s press corps continues to demonstrate how professional reporters ask hard questions of the Democratic presidential candidate — with notes written on an orange rolled on the floor of an airplane.

Via ABC News’s Liz Kreutz (not The Onion), on Tuesday night someone rolled a piece of fruit from the back of Clinton’s plane to the campaign staff section at the front. They requested that she circle one of two answers, much like a middle-school “Do you like me?” letter.

Press rolled orange to HRC asking if she'd rather dine w Trump or Putin. @NickMerrill circled Putin & rolled it back pic.twitter.com/b6160y7NPf — Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) September 6, 2016

BuzzFeed’s Ruby Cramer appears to be the reporter who rolled the literal soft ball. Cramer has previously written a 6,000+-word profile of Clinton painting her as a “love and kindness” candidate. Cramer did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the observation.

The orange/clementine roll down campaign plane just now on @HillaryClinton jet, w/ Q: Dinner w/Trump or Putin? pic.twitter.com/jvw9BWO5Bn — Michael Mathes (@MichaelMathes) September 6, 2016

we rolled an orange to @HillaryClinton on the plane…who would you rather have dinner w…Trump or Putin? A:Putin pic.twitter.com/8PQNzKxtCH — Tamara Gitt (@tamaragitt) September 6, 2016

Clinton herself did not answer the question written on the orange.

Per @NickMerrill, HRC saw the orange, noted she once dined w Putin, but did not issue an answer either way. (It was Nick who chose Putin) — Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) September 6, 2016

As social media users began to mock the press’s orange roll, veteran reporters objected that the practice has been a campaign-trail tradition for decades.

The orange-rolling thing, and tray surfing, go at least as far back as the 80s. Also, seat number lotto. — Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) September 7, 2016

However, the pointlessness of the question reinforces concerns about the press’s non-confrontational approach to covering the Democratic candidate. She may soon reach the milestone of 300 days without a formal press conference, and her press corps will not touch controversial topics — like foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation or the just-released FBI notes on her unsecured, homebrew email server from which she conducted all her business as secretary of state.

When Clinton first greeted reporters on her “Stronger Together”-branded Boeing 737, journalists posed “awkward first date”-style questions, as described by CNN anchor Christine Romans. “How was your Labor Day weekend?” they asked the former secretary of state. “Are you ready?” “Do you have a Labor Day message?”

Clinton, for her part, gives reporters very little incentive to ask substantive questions. On Tuesday, she abruptly cut off an informal press gaggle when asked about a CNN/ORC poll which showed Donald Trump in the lead nationally.

In June, Clinton responded to a question about Senator Elizabeth Warren with a bizarre head-wobbling motion, then gave a non-sequitur recommendation of “cold chai” tea.

In August of last year, Fox News reporter Ed Henry asked Clinton whether she “wiped” her email server. After a few dissembling sentences from Clinton, Henry followed up, “You were the official in charge of it. Did you wipe the server?” Clinton quipped, “What, like with a cloth or something?”

Last Friday, the FBI revealed that a Clinton staffer used a data deletion app called “BleachBit” to wipe the server — weeks after the New York Times revealed the private email system, and weeks after Clinton said in a statement: “I want the public to see my email.”