Roughly two weeks after pretending to defend federal workers over Geithner's decision to use government pension funds to stave off economic disaster, Fox News returned to their usual attacks on civil servants. Fox's supposedly “straight news” program, America Live, seized on a new study saying that thousands of federal employees are paid more than the governors of the state where they work to attack these employees as overpaid. But in reporting on the study, Fox itself cast doubt on whether all those workers actually receive a salary that is too generous.

America Live guest host Martha MacCallum and Fox News contributor Monica Crowley highlighted a new report by the Congressional Research Service that found that 77,000 federal workers made more than their state's governor in 2009. (Earlier the same day, Fox's Eric Bolling also touted the same study to spread falsehoods about civil servants.) MacCallum said that, according to the report, “you have four food service workers who are making more than the governor” and “an interior decorator also making more than the governor in certain states.” She added: "[T]he point is, we're seeing a lot of inflation in federal salaries -- state salaries." Crowley responded by saying that “these kinds of stories tell us that the Democratic leadership ... have been so out of touch with spending, with what the American people want in terms of fiscal responsibility that they've gone down this road of out of control spending.”

But MacCallum herself undermined the attack by noting that many of the 77,000 workers identified in the study are doctors and air traffic controllers. MacCallum stated: "[S]ome of these workers -- a lot of them are doctors -- and I think, you know, everyone likes to see a good doctor paid handsomely, or paid well," she said. “Then you get to the air traffic controllers, also an important job.” (According to the report, of the 77,000 employees 18,351 were “medical officer[s]” and 5,170 worked in “air traffic control.”)

Moreover, comparing the salaries of federal employees to those of governors is almost completely meaningless. State governments have no control over the salaries of federal employees just as the federal government has no control over the salaries of state employees, including those of governors. If a federal employee is being paid more than a governor, it is because the individual state has set the governor's salary, not the federal government.

A more appropriate comparison would be whether federal employees make more than President Obama, whose salary is also 000-.html">set by the federal government. And if one somehow thought it was appropriate to compare the salaries of state and federal workers, why choose the state governor? Why not choose the highest paid state employee, who is often a basketball or football coach at a public university making a salary in the millions?

Or, since Fox cares so much about public-private comparisons, why not see whether any federal workers make as much as a CEO at one of the nation's largest companies? It certainly doesn't make any less sense than comparing their salaries to those of governors.