Failing schools, failing media?

As I was reading some reports on the No Child Left Behind Act — and the labeling of schools as 'failing' because they missed the national mark on one of 37 indicators — it occurred to me that perhaps the U.S. media might be ranked similarly.

For example, a matrix could be devised that would measure whether a network (say, Fox) used language that was non-objective in its newscast. If it did, then a national panel created by a No Media Left Unjudged Act, could declare the network biased.

For the schools labelled failing, it means they get less funds. (Hmmm, give less money to schools that need help. There's a program.)

For media, it could signal that fewer advertisers should give money to the newscasts.

Oh wait, I forgot, the advertisers WANT some bias in the news. It just has to be their biases. (Look up what's going on with Sinclair TV stations to get some idea about that...)

mjf 10/10/04