"It's kind of drip, drip, drip," said Paul Friedman, vice president of CBS News. "If we made another bad mistake, it would kind of add to the toll taken on our credibility."
The networks are doing everything they can
to keep the early exit poll information secret.
This time around, the members of the National Election Pool -- a consortium of five broadcast and cable networks and The Associated Press that commissions exit polls of the major races -- have decided to sequester two analysts from each news organization in a secret "quarantine room" in New York, where they alone will get access to the first waves of data from precincts around the country.
Stripped of their cell phones and Blackberries -- and even monitored when they use the bathrooms -- the representatives will be able to study the results of the surveys, but will not be allowed to communicate them to their newsrooms until 5 p.m. Eastern.
So at 4:00pm central time Tuesday make sure you get to the internet to check out the first leaked exit polls - four hours ahead of when polls will actually be closing in Wisconsin.
