As Media Matters has documented, conservative media figures have attacked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for using the pension funds of federal workers to ensure that the government continues to meet its legal obligations while the White House and lawmakers attempt to strike a deal to increase the debt limit.

Media Matters also noted several reasons why these attacks don't hold water. First, Geithner's actions are in line with those of the Treasury Department under former Presidents Bush and Clinton. Second, federal workers and retirees will not be affected by these measures as the Treasury is legally required to reimburse the program once the debt limit is increased. And third, economic disaster could have occurred had Geithner not taken these measures.

It's impossible to know how many members of the right-wing media knew all these facts but decided it was too good to pass up the cheap shot against Geithner. What is extremely, unlikely, however, is that the right-wing media have the best interests of public employees at heart. That is because the conservative media have a long history of attacking public workers -- including blaming financial problems on their pensions.

One of the ways in which conservative media have attempted to vilifying public workers is by pushing the falsehood that public sector workers earn more than their private sector counterparts. Fox's Mike Huckabee, for example, has claimed that “public union workers [make] 30% better wages [and] 70% better benefits than their private sector counterparts.” Fox News contributor Tucker Carlson has likewise said that public sector workers “make more than you do” and “won't even consider taking any kind of cut.”

Conservative media have also attacked public sector workers for their supposed incompetence and for having it too cushy.

On Fox News' Glenn Beck, Fox's senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano attacked public school teachers, suggesting there is little “incentive ... for them to do a good job.” Napolitano also complained that these teachers have it easy because “they really don't have any competition” and because children will attend their schools “no matter how lousy a job they do.” Fox News political analyst Dick Morris has railed against “incompetent” New York City teachers who “go to rubber rooms every day and read the paper and watch TV and we pay them full salary.” (This claim is false.) Moreover, Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy has argued against teachers' tenure, declaring that it “simply does not work.”

What's more, right-wing media have falsely blamed public workers' pensions for state budgetary woes. For instance, Fox Business' Stuart Varney has claimed that “pensions paid to retired state workers are ... the biggest reason” states are facing a budget crisis, and Fox Business' Eric Bolling has called state pension obligations “a big Ponzi scheme” that has forced states to consider declaring bankruptcy.

And Glenn Beck has even gone as far as to cite pensions as one of the reasons for why “we don't make anything” in the United States “anymore.”

It's no surprise that media conservatives are using any excuse they can come up with to attack a member of the Obama administration, but it is completely hypocritical for them to act like they care what happens to public employees and their pensions.