Rule No. 5 of the journalism handbook reads: Never become the story.

After TV news outlets sliced that rule to bits four years ago, then drowned in the confetti, they swore it wouldn’t happen again.

This year, they:

* Promised they wouldn’t call a state until they were absolutely certain.

* Told us about their “decision desks” and “election analysis centers.”

* Explained their cutting-edge computer software, which turned maps of the United States 269 shades of red and blue.

As the polls closed from the East Coast to the West, some states were projected as winners for President Bush and some for Sen. John Kerry.

“We don’t ‘call’ anymore, we ‘project,’” Peter Jennings of ABC quipped.

Everything went fine until it was time to take the plunge.

As every major network crept toward the edge, they peeked over and saw pies aimed at their faces – and they were all in the shape of Florida.

This wasn’t purely a question of Ohio, which was the real wild card. By 10:50 p.m., Fox News and NBC News had already called the Buckeye State for the president, giving him 269 electoral votes – just one shy of the 270 needed for victory.

CNN, ABC and CBS, however, had not awarded Ohio to Bush, but later gave him Nevada. The Silver State, by these three networks’ count, gave Bush 254.

Had they awarded him Ohio, they would have declared him the winner.

Had Fox News and NBC, on the other hand, given Nevada to Bush – which the others already had – they would have declared him the winner.

But nobody wanted to be the first to step on the proverbial hoe and have the proverbial handle clock them upside the proverbial head.

“If we hadn’t gone through what we went through in 2000, I have a hunch we’d be calling this for Bush,” CNN’s Jeff Greenfield said about 10:30 p.m.

“With the justified criticism of the media, in particular the networks and cable, we are not in any hurry to risk saying something about which we are not certain,” Jennings said.

“There may be other news organizations saying Ohio is for George W. Bush, but we are not,” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer said.

“This has gotten kind of absurd,” Fox News’ Brit Hume said. “We have been poised on the edge of a decision and finality in this presidential race – at least in the best terms we can project – for, what, more than an hour now?”

It got to the point where one had to wonder, “Who’s in charge of just saying it?”

Regardless of who it would be, it wasn’t going to be the news networks – no matter how badly the candidates wanted them to ease their own burden.

Jennings took ABC News off the air just before 2 a.m., before any other network called it a night, and KOMO-TV ran an infomercial on Clorox bleach products.

Moments later, Tom Brokaw at NBC said, “The Kerry people are very unhappy with NBC for making a judgment about Ohio.

“The Bush people … really thought they were going to claim their victory tonight, and then they were unhappy with the networks for not giving them the votes they believe they have to put him over the top.”

Finally, Kerry called Bush on Wednesday morning to concede.

Within minutes, Fox News and NBC called Nevada for Bush and declared him the winner; and CNN and the rest called Ohio for Bush and declared him the winner.

But on a night when everybody – lastly, the candidates themselves – finally realized that getting it right is more important than getting it first, we can only hope the lesson sticks.

Tune in again in four years.

Columnist Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@ heraldnet.com.