The press is now so fully committed to advancing the GOP's talking point about Pelosi and how much supposed trouble she's in regarding the CIA briefing story, which seems only to be consuming the 202 area code, that the press will construct any news angle to support it. This CNN.com example is particularly egregious.

The headline:

CNN Poll: Pelosi facing Gingrich-like approval ratings

Cue breathless lede:

As Nancy Pelosi continues to face a firestorm over what she may have known about aggressive government interrogation techniques, and when, a new survey has more unpleasant news for the House Speaker.

Nearly half of all Americans — 48 percent — disapprove of how the California Democrat she is handling her job as Speaker of the House in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday, while 39 percent approve of her performance.

Where to begin? Ok, the headline. To me it implies that Pelosi's become so unpopular that she's crashing into Newt Gingrich territory, and he was so widely disliked that he was forced to leave office. Good golly, does the same fate await Pelosi?

Probably not, because as the CNN.com article eventually concedes, Pelosi's approval ratings today (39 percent) are similar to Gingrich's not when he was driven to office, but when he first became speaker. Meaning, that 39 percent pretty much represented Gingrich's high point, not low. But CNN suggests it's bad news that Pelosi's approval ratings are the same as Gingrich's best poll numbers as speaker? That doesn't make sense.

Next, CNN clearly draws a connection between Pelosi's CIA troubles and her low approval ratings. (i.e. “More unpleasant news for the House Speaker.”) CNN implies there's a cause and effect between that Beltway process story and the speaker's low numbers. But is there? The answer is unequivocally no, because Pelosi's approval ratings haven't budged all year. The CIA story hasn't moved the needle one inch in terms of how Americans view her.

Fact: In CNN's January poll, Pelosi's approval rating was also 39 percent. That means the CNN headline would have been just as factual if it read this way:

No change at all in Pelosi's approval ratings this year

Meanwhile, CNN leaves out crucial context, like how is Pelosi's Republican counterpart in the House viewed by Americans? CNN hasn't polled on Rep. John Boehner recently, but in March, Newsweek did and found that just 21 percent approved of the Republican's House leader. Suddenly Pelosi's 39 looks pretty good, right? But CNN dutifully leaves out that context in order to push the Pelosi's-in-trouble-because-of-the-CIA angle.

UPDATE: Writing about the CNN poll, and buying into the CNN spin, Politico's Glenn Thrush claims:

The CIA torture briefings story line is taking its toll on Nancy Pelosi's approval ratings.

This is pure fiction. The fact is that the CIA torture briefings story line has taken no toll on her ratings as measured by CNN. But the press has a preferred story that it would like to tell.