Bloggers and Online Media Second Class Citizens at the Caucus?

Thanks to my fellowship with the Center for Independent Media and good people in the Iowa Democratic Party, I'm credentialed as a member of the Press to cover the caucuses today. Basically that means I get access to the press area, a desk, and I'll also be getting real time access to the caucus results as they come in thanks to the Democratic Party. Sounds great, but thus far by initial experience in the belly of the big media beast has not been smooth. In my experience today, bloggers and online news outlets are still second class citizens in this media ecosystem.

There are two ways to get caucus results tonight (aside from watching your TeeVee), if you are a member of the media. The first through the system mentioned run by the Democratic Party, which will provide access to up to the minute results. The second is a similar online system offered by an exit polling firm, Edison-Mitofsky. From what I can tell, the differences between the two polls are these: The IADP offers entrance poll data and delegate counts, but does not break out that data by age. E-M offers exit polling data that will have cross tabs broken down by age.

As many of you know, I'm here primarily to report on youth turnout. I've already layed-out the many youth vote media narrative scenarios I see arising. Mostly I think this is dependent on whether or not Barack wins (Barack win = positive narrative, Barack loss = negative narrative). However, as we've seen in the past, the media is none too good at reporting on actual youth vote turnout. I've also noted that there are major discrepancies between what the Democratic Part (and the media) and youth vote researches have reported for 2004 turnout. With all that confusion out there, the terrible track record of the media, and the high likelihood that the youth vote story will be pivotal in explaining Obama's performance (whether he captures the youth vote or not), it's in everyone's interests that we get as accurate a picture of youth participation as possible.

Here's the rub. Edison-Mitofsky won't let me pay them for a subscription because I'm a blogger. Their representatives have stated that they only service "bona fide media organizations" and that online news outlets don't count. So not only doesmy blog Future Majority not count as a media outlet (despite the fact that my youth vote reporting has been much more accurate than what the mainstream media has reporting), but neither does MyDD, nor the Center for Independent Media, through which I have a journalism fellowship. As many of you know, the Center for Independent Media publishes the excellent news sites The Iowa Independent, Colorado Confidential, Michigan Messenger, and Minnesota Monitor. They are also

I wonder if they're denying Salon.com and Slate.com access to this data? Or is it just us lowly bloggers . . . ?

Results are starting to come in. More later on tonight's youth turnout.