Kirk Gets Scrutiny for Tweeting on Duty
BY Nancy Scola | Friday, July 31 2009
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL-@markkirk) is coming under scrutiny by the Defense Department, reports CNN, for letting his staff post some rather innocuous tweets while he was on duty as a Navy Reservist at the Pentagon's National Military Command Center:
The first tweet sent on July 25 read: "On duty @ the Pentagon's National Military Command Center. All is currently (relatively) quiet. Honor 2 be back w/ my fellow Navy colleagues."
The next day he wrote: "Back on duty in the National Military Command Center – lets hope for a calm day for our troops."
Two questions are raised about these tweets. The first is whether or not Kirk revealed his location when he should not have ("Loose lips sink ships") and the second is whether or not his Twitter account goes against military regulations that state military members are not allowed to update or revise any "Web sites created before entry on active duty."
To add to the confusion, military members are not allowed while in uniform to attend political rallies (the military is non-partisan). So what does it mean that Kirk is tweeting while on duty for his own political campaign?
The revelation that Kirk was working at the Pentagon seems to be the lesser of the concerns; it's not as if Kirk tweeted the coordinates of a battleship sneaking into the waters off Libya. But his posting to Twitter on a campaign account while serving in the military is a tougher question, and one that has left the military, says CNN, scratching their heads. That points, of course, to the fact that, like the rest of government, the Defense Department hasn't figured out clears rules of engagement for a world where their employees can (and do) instantly connect with the rest of the world through Twitter and other social media.