CBS Marketwatch ‘s Frank Barnako warns that bloggers could leak exit poll results well ahead of major news organizations. “With inside sources and a willingness to pass along rumors, Webloggers are likely to be where confidential information from about polling, lawsuits and vote counts appear first.”

Barnako’s piece features the transcript of an interview with Blogads founder Henry Copeland, who notes that bloggers will be likely to leak information:

Very likely if it’s from Fox, it’s going to go to Drudge because he can drive a lot of traffic their way. And it may in fact be an intentional leak for that reason. A lot of the media play that game. Stuff from the Washington Post is constantly showing up on Drudge and you have to believe the desire is to drive traffic.

The major news organizations dropped their polling company after the 2000 election and adopted new guidelines to ensure results aren’t released early. All that could be for naught if the bloggers reach a large enough audience. Copeland shrugs off the potential impact if blog reports become a source of results before polls close: “It’s just the new reality of the new media age. We’ll have to deal with it.”

PR people should take note of what happens tonight. Bloggers pre-empting traditional news outlets and delivering results before officials want it released could presage problems for non-political communications, such as company earnings, the status of merger talks and a host of other business communications that shouldn’t be made public. The impact of tonight’s blogging should bring us closer to terms with our own new reality of the new media age.