Secret Service red-faced by errant anti-Fox News tweet

The Secret Service was dealing with a Twitter tempest on May 20 after an agency employee posted a message on the agency’s official Twitter account criticizing Fox News.

“Had to monitor Fox for a story,” the tweet from @SecretService read. “Can’t. Deal. With. The. Blathering.”

The tweet quickly was deleted from Twitter but not before a number of observers shared it on the site by retweeting. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch @WeatherBird captured a screen grab here.

The Secret Service subsequently apologized and told the Washington Post that an employee with access to the agency Twitter account mistakenly believed he or she was on a personal Twitter account and posted the message. “The tweet contained no vulgarity, security or pertinent agency information. The tweet did not reflect the views of the U.S. Secret Service and it was immediately removed,” the statement published by the Washington Post said.

The Secret Service debuted its Twitter feed on May 10, and already has more than 23,000 followers.

“Little more than a week after the U.S. Secret Service launched its official Twitter account, the federal law enforcement agency has had a major system failure,” Mike Levine wrote on the Fox News politics blog on May 18.

“It was a fascinating insight into what is said near the Secret Service water coolers,” stated an article in the UK's Daily Mail. “But there were red faces at the agency.”