Idaho Senator Jim Risch's Office Mistakes Foreign Ship for Ours

No good deed goes unpunished. U.S. Senator Jim Risch of Idaho wanted to wish a happy birthday to the Navy. His office sent out a tweet with a warship pictured. Now, it needs to be said, the tweet was likely sent out by a member of the staff. And someone likely picked a picture of a generic warship. Instead, it wasn’t quite so generic. It was an image of a Chinese-made warship. Oops! Stars and Stripes picked up the story and reports the tweet was later deleted.

The ship pictured is apparently in service to Thailand.

Look, as faux pas go, this is minor. On the other hand, Senators usually have a few veterans on staff and some are designated to work directly with veterans and on issues related to servicemen and women. I’m not sure if anyone in the media office ran the image past one of the veterans but it would be a good idea before posting.

I worked in newsrooms for 17 years and also would like to share something with my former news colleagues. I’ve seen similar mistakes made and especially under deadlines. In news, it’s often more damaging to the credibility of the product. From a government office, well, we all know how efficient things are in Washington. It doesn’t make me think anything less of my Senator. He’s a very nice man and always kind to me and he has a very wry sense of humor.

Nobody got nuked here. It’s just one of those roadblocks we all sometimes stumble over in the modern Internet era. A bigger concern for me is why aren’t we selling Thailand hardware?

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