Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com editor Terry Jeffrey had a huge fit of anti-Washington snobbery this week. First, there was a Dec. 9 article in which he wrote:
Five of the nation's Top Ten wealthiest counties--when measured by median household income in 2014--are suburbs of Washington, D.C.; and the three wealthiest are all in suburban Virginia, according to data released today by the Census Bureau.
Falls Church, Va.--an independent city which the Census counts as a county--led the nation with a median household income of $125,635 in 2014.
Loudon County, Va., was second with a median household income of $122,641.
Fairfax County, Va., was third with a median household income of $110,507.
Jeffrey followed up the next day with this article:
The “county” that the Census Bureau reported yesterday had the highest median household income in the nation in 2014 is disproportionately populated by people who work for the government.
The City of Falls Church, Va.--which the Census Bureau treats as a “county” because it is an independent city that is not a part of any county—had a median household income of $125,635 in 2014.
That put it first on the Census Bureau’s list of the 30 counties in the nation with the highest median incomes.[...]
In the five-year period from 2010-2014, according to the Census Bureau’s estimate, there were 7,290 Falls Church City residents 16 and older who were employed.
2,389 of these—or 32.8 percent—worked for government.
Nationwide, during the same time period, only 14.6 percent of workers were employed by government.
Thus, workers in the nation’s wealthiest county were more than twice as likely as workers nationwide to be employed by government.
Of course, this is nothing but read-meat government-bashing for the benefit of CNS' right-wing readers (and, hopefully, a few traffic-driving clicks). But Jeffrey isn't telling you the whole story -- like how utterly hypocritical his sneering attacks are.
CNS and its parent organization, the Media Research Center, are headquarted in Reston, Va. -- located in Fairfax County, the third-wealthiest U.S. county that Jeffrey was mocking. And Reston is just a 12-mile drive from Falls Church, Va., which is located in the middle of Fairfax County.
Reston, being located in that wealthy county, is not too shabby on the median income front -- $110,321 according to the Census Bureau. So the denizens of CNS' hometown are living quite well.
As is Jeffrey. We don't know where exactly Jeffrey lives in the Washington area, but with a salary of $122,400 in 2011 -- which has surely increased since then -- he can easily afford a place in Falls Church. Indeed, the salaries paid to all top MRC officials help to prop up that lofty median salary in Fairfax County.
Further, Jeffrey's sneering assertion that "workers in the nation’s wealthiest county were more than twice as likely as workers nationwide to be employed by government" is utterly dishonest. It's ridiculous for Jeffrey to express surprise that a town near the capital of the most powerful country in the world has a large number of government workers.
Also, notice that Jeffrey offers no breakdown of the income of government workers vs. private sector workers in Falls Church. It's entirely possible, if not likely, that the salaries of these private-sector workers are what's driving up the median salary there. If he can't do that, all he's doing is smearing government workers.
If Jeffrey feels so strongly about this and looks down on his fellow Fairfax County residents so severely, why doesn't he talk his boss, Brent Bozell into moving the MRC far out of the Washington area, to that "flyover country" heartland conservatives speak so highly of? Or stop playing the Washington game he purports to despise and leave CNS -- and his six-figure salary -- behind?
