I think all the major news networks are too busy reporting on the "war on Christmas" to have mentioned this little tid-bit of info, but Freedom House, who has been conducting press freedom surveys in the media since the 80s, just released results ranking America as the 24th in "media independence".

This score is ranked by three categories: Legal environment, political pressures and economic factors. Now there are only 75 countries that are considered to be free in the media... the other 120-some contries fall into the categories of partly-free and not-free. So 24th out of 75, not the greatest, but hey, we still have a long ways to fall - so that's good news.

As for the countries that fell into the rankings 1 to 20: (1) Finland, Iceland, Sweden, (4) Denmark, Norway, (6) Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, (10) New Zealand, (11) Marshall Islands, Palau, (13) Andorra, Bahamas, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Portugal, (18) Ireland, Jamaica, (20) Germany, San Marino, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines. Other countries that also scores 24th: Barbados, Canada, Dominica, Estonia, Latvia, and us... or U.S., depending on where you are reading from.

If you are interested in reading more about the results, click here to download their 'Freedom of the Press 2005' [pdf].