I haven't seen the list yet since it is only supposed to be released tomorrow if I understand the article right. I also understand that the list is published by "Freedom House" who are not only partially funded by the US government but also have had to endure the criticism of not being totally unbiased in their assesments in the past.

Acusations of being neoconservative have been leveled against them long before the term became a household word. Their views of what is free is at least sometimes a bit problematic.

That said it should be easy to find many countries more corrupt then the US. That is many countries where the corruprion is practiced out in the open as a part of the local culture. Some might argue that the corruption is just better hidden in creative accounting and semilegal tactics in the higher political offices in the US. Also if you just quantified by total amount of money that changed hands than the US would lead by a fair marging simply by being one of the richest countries in the world.