[First published in AM New York ]

“AMERICA HAS SPOKEN!” So pronounced the re-elected George W. Bush, in a landmark quote for the year – one delivered in his best “Don’t mess with Texas” tones.  

It surely was a year when certainty, however right or wrong, repeatedly triumphed over thoughtfulness or reflection. It will be hard to forget Dan Rather‘s resoluteness (deeply Texan, too) when he proclaimed: “60 Minutes has now obtained a number of documents” dated 1972, referring to a young Lieutenant George W Bush and “how he can get out of coming to drill.”

It took some time (all right, nearly two weeks in fact) but eventually Dan was back saying, “It was a mistake. CBS News deeply regrets it. Also, I want to say personally and directly: I’m sorry.”

Almost as hard to forget was the New York Post‘s confidently bright-red “EXCLUSIVE!” banner alongside. its headline yelling “KERRY’S CHOICE – Dem picks Gephardt as VP candidate.”

Later that same day, in fact when John Edwards was announced as John Kerry’s real veep choice, came the embarrassed retreat by Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allan: “We unreservedly apologize to our readers for the mistake.”

The snafu happened, according to insider sources, because the ‘lousy’ Gephardt tip came from the Post’s owner, Rupert Murdoch – never a man to disagree with if you work for him.

Well, come next March; Dan Rather will be only a memory in the news-anchor chair. I suspect, though, that the Murdoch empire will continue along its distinctive way throughout 2005 and beyond.

Real mistakes have to be corrected, of course, but one powerful legacy of 2004 will be the way that forces on both the left and the right became such virulent, as well as vigilant, watchdogs over our mainstream media – often using weblogs as rapid-fire Uzis for their critiques. The New York Times Public Editor Dan Okrent finds it “amazing” that reporters, especially political reporters, can still keep their eye on the ball. Ed Wasserman, a journalism professor at Washington and Lee University, calls it “negotiated news,” in which writers craft their material to keep critics off their backs as much as to report what they actually see and hear.

I MAKE NO CLAIMS OF INFALLIBILITY, but I can report that 2005 will certainly see some grotesque new media developments.

So-called ‘reality television’ will push its ill-defined envelope even further – perhaps more than some viewers would ever want. Observing in close-up the very first gasps of life, as in Discovery Health’ s show “Birth Day Live” may be one thing, but look out next year for the protracted processes of death – and after – appearing on your flat-screen.

A British series “Dust to Dust” is expected to arrive here, in which a willing member of the public (I hope willing!) allows cameras to record his or her own corpse’s decomposition.

Simon Berthon, chairman of 3BM, the production company making “Dust” – and incidentally a fine documentarian in some recent years – is looking to do a deal with a U.S. cable network.

Maybe the familiar tabloid TV news adage “If it bleeds, it leads” will become: “If it decomposes, it grosses.”