Driving home last week, I heard a prominent movie reviewer say on the radio that he loves January. Why? “Because all of the movies that come out are just terrible,” he explained with a mischievous giggle.
Not sure if I want to hear his reviews from now on.
Will he simply trash any movie that comes out this month, tainted by a perception that January is a “dumping ground” for films that aren’t supposed to be good enough to be holiday blockbusters?
Or will he go the other way because of an allegiance to a bell-curve type of grading? Will he think there must always be a few great movies out there, as well as a few terrible, with most in-between? Might his reviews therefore give undeserving movies an extra thumb or “star” perhaps?
Now you see where this is going: star ratings. You’ve had about three weeks to digest the federal government’s new “five-star” rating system for nursing homes. What do you think?
*Did they get it right-how many stars does it deserve?
*Is your ranking accurate?
*Is it fair?
*Do you think you’ll have a higher ranking next time? Why?
It’s impossible to believe that some of the more analytical minds out there haven’t figured out there’s a way to “goose” their scores. At least some of the self-reported data that goes into these rankings can be “massaged” to an advantage.
**Please tell us your thoughts below in the comments section. (Remaining anonymous is OK, though we hope you will note at least your generic job title.)
