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Last week a Washington anecdote offered a glimpse into the mental state of the Washington press corps, as White House press secretary Jay Carney faced a reportorial rebellion around an unexpected issue: metaphors.

It was a Rashomon-like incident, in which reporters either presumptuously chided a government official for his phraseology or they resolutely refused to accept evasion when the public deserved answers. But which was it?

Scott Wilson of the Washington Post reported on the insurrection over Carneys use of language. Carney had described the GOPs actions around the government shutdown and the debt ceiling debate with words like matches and gasoline and nuclear weapon (a weapon that Republicans were allegedly keeping in a back pocket).

But the term that finally provoked an outburst was ransom, a word the administration has deployed many times in recent days. When Carney began a comment by saying The president will not pay ransom for he was interrupted by Ari Shapiro from NPR, who told Carney that the word ransom was a metaphor which doesnt serve our purposes.

It sounds like a highhanded comment, but maybe you had to be there. Shapiro obviously was, and he said this in an email exchange with Salon: I might have used a different phrase than suit our purposes if Id scripted it in advance, but I was speaking off the cuff Carney wasnt helping us understand the White Houses actual position on whether a six-month debt ceiling bill would be enough to bring the president to the table.

Shapiro certainly wasnt alone in his discontent. The Post reported that he shouted back at Carney with broad support from other journalists.

You guys are just too literal then, right? Carney replied. As the press room exploded in hubbub, Carney muttered phrases as if to himself: the closing of the American mind the failure to appreciate metaphor and simile .

The moment brought to mind the Surrealists of the 1920s or the Situationists of the 1960s: a revolt over style, the White House press corps as vanguard for a revolution in language, thought and perception. Shapiro quickly killed that speculation with his retort: We just want to accurately report, he told Carney. Were trying to be accurate in our description of whats going on.

Its easy to sympathize. The president, a self-described Rorschach test, can be evasive. He often does it gracefully, like one of those post-Newtonian physical phenomena that are both particle and wave at the same time. His officials, on the other hand, have proven less adept in practicing the art of evasion. Anyone whos been on the receiving end of this practice knows it can be a maddening experience.

Thats a minor aggravation that only affects a few people. Whats more important is the question that went unanswered. As Shapiro put it in a blog post, Carney explained that Obama will have conversations but wont pay a ransom (but) one mans negotiation is another mans conversation is another mans ransom.

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We retort, we decide: This is the real mainstream press bias