Military's Chief Spokesman Mistakenly Tweets Link to Satirical News Story

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By Brian Ries2014-04-03 04:59:17 UTC

The chief spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense on Wednesday mistakenly tweeted a link to the military’s version of The Onion.

The tweet has since been deleted.

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Rear Adm. John Kirby, who serves as the chief spokesman for U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, meant to share a link containing Hagel’s statement on Wednesday’s tragic Fort Hood shooting when he tweeted: “Secdef issues statement on today's shooting.” Instead, the link that followed led to a story on Duffel Blog, a tongue-in-cheek website that contains satirical news articles about the U.S. military.

A screenshot of the deleted tweet.

Image: @pentagonpressec

The article in question: “Captain Being Photographed Unaware It’ll Be On Cover Of Navy Times When He’s Fired Next Month.” Here's a taste:

“A U.S. Navy captain sitting down for his official photograph to be used on the command wall of the USS San Antonio (LPD-17) as well as his online biography is unaware it will also be used in hundreds of news stories when he’s fired for misconduct in the next couple of months, sources confirmed today.

Image: duffelblog.com

After Twitter users poked fun at the press secretary’s mistaken link, Kirby sent a tweet explaining the error. “My last tweet included an erroneous link,” he tweeted. “Not sure what I did wrong. Read Secdef's statement at defense.gov.”

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Topics: Twitter, U.S., US & World

Image: Anadolu Agency/Contributor/Anadolu Agency