The Urban Dictionary defines the term “FAIL” as a “glorious lack of success.” Widely used on the web, the word has fast become the go-to slang for those wishing to register their disproval of just about anything.

Now, the Free Press is up with a new website designed to tack advantage of the popular Internet idiom while also holding the media accountable.

Brian Stelter reports for the New York Times' Media Decoder blog:

Media criticism has been boiled down to a single, painful word: fail.

The activist group Free Press has built a Digg-like Web site for such mistakes, called MediaFail, that highlights what its users think are the most egregious examples of the “media behaving badly,” to borrow its slogan.

Like Digg, the popular social media site, MediaFail lets users give a virtual thumbs-up (or in this case, thumbs-down) to external articles and videos. Users can add links to articles and leave comments, but most just vote.

Reached for comment by Media Matters, Tim Karr of Free Press said the new website was launched to “give people a place not just to vent but also move toward actions to build a better system.”

It's Free Press' hope that the website will “funnel the large audience of people who share a common complaint about the media toward actions and engagement to make the media better,” Karr added.

According to Karr, the website is already taking off with “more than 3,000 people [who] have registered to 'fail' the media” since it launched in mid-May.

Have a FAIL moment you'd like to share with the world? Visit the website or follow the #mediaFAIL hashtag on Twitter.

Free Press describes itself as “a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to reform the media. Through education, organizing and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media, quality journalism, and universal access to communications.”