The most current survey of free countries, partly free countries and not free countries has just been released. In Global Press Freedom Rankings for 2005 The United States media is ranked 29 th in the world. 29 th. The leading exporter of 'democracy' is ranked 29 th in Freedom of the Press.
http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/pressurvey/allscore2005.pdf
Latvia , Barbados and Palau beat us.
Barbados (#24) only beat the U.S. (#29) because the ranking is also alphabetical when there is a tie. They both scored 17, along with Canada (#25).