There's no real meaningful person in this pot left to 'manipulate'. If you believe it, then it bears out what Santorum has done to Romney (which is closer to the truth). If you don't, then it's really either Mitt or Newt. Any way you look at this, the media doesn't know which way to turn.
My wacky theory is the poll was an honest attempt to capture the opinion of the country in the last couple of days, that is probably reasonably accurate.
This from Public Policy Polling. See what happens if Gingrich drops off:
“Rick Santorum has all the momentum in Michigan right now,” Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, said in a press release. “But it’s important to note that more than 50 percent of voters say they could change their minds in the next two weeks. There’s a lot of room for this race to shift back toward Romney in the coming days.”
“Voters were more likely to have a favorable opinion of Santorum (67 percent) than Romney (49 percent) in the PPP poll.”
“If Gingrich dropped out of the GOP presidential nomination race, his support is more likely to flow to Santorum than Romney, the poll indicates. If just Romney, Santorum and Paul were in the race, Santorum would get 48 percent (up from 39 percent if Gingrich were in) and Romney 27 (up from 24 percent).”