It appears that an employee of the U.S. Secret Service has gone a little off-book after they posted a tweet that criticized FOX News on the organization’s official Twitter account. The Secret Service has apologized for the mistake, and says that the employee no longer has access to the @SecretService account.

The tweet (which has since been deleted), read, “Had to monitor Fox for a story. Can’t. Deal. With. The. Blathering.”

Before the Secret Service could delete the tweet, however, it was spotted by several Twitter users and quickly began to spread throughout the social network:

The Secret Service Twitter account was launched less than 2 weeks ago with the aim of providing information about recruiting events along with press releases and details relating to its dual mission of protection and investigations. With that in mind, the rogue tweet was certainly off-message and the person who posted it apparently thought they were tweeting on their personal account.

The Secret Service has apologized for the rogue tweet. In a statement, it said:

An employee with access to the Secret Service’s Twitter account, who mistakenly believed they were on their personal account, posted an unapproved and inappropriate tweet. We apologize for this mistake, and the user no longer has access to our official account. Policies and practices which would have prevented this were not followed and will be reinforced for all account users.

Of course, this would not be the first case where someone has tweeted something they should not have. A social media account manager was fired after he tweeted an f-bomb on Chrysler’s feed. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried was fired as the voice of the Aflac Duck after tweeting insensitive jokes about the Japan earthquake and tsunami, and a young soccer player lost his job after tweeting disturbing comments about Celtic Football Club manager Neil Lennon.

[Image Credit: TwitPic, @Liberty_Chick]