The annual Conservative Political Action Conference had just started this morning when CNN angered some prominent players by comparing it to a cauldron of bacteria.

Just before noon, an on-air reporter and anchor called CPAC a “conservative petri dish,” an image disgusting to some, and scientifically appropriate to others.

Reporter Peter Hamby, talking about the conference and its reaction to Mitt Romney, said, “It will be interesting to see in this kind of conservative petri dish how Mitt Romney is received and how his challengers re received too.”

That prompted anchor Suzanne Malveaux to say, “I love that, conservative petri dish. That’s a great way to describe it.”