If there’s one thing we can all agree on in this divisive and hyper-partisan political climate, it’s that our nation’s intelligence agencies should be using social media to poke holes in the logic of freshman network dramas. That’s why I’m so pleased to report that the CIA has been taking to its official @CIA Twitter account to “counter popular myths and misconceptions about the Agency” by live-tweeting corrections and a “Well, actually…” or two during episodes of Katherine Heigl’s new NBC political drama, State of Affairs.
For the uninitiated, State of Affairs stars Heigl as a CIA analyst named Charleston Tucker whose job it is to provide the President Alfre Woodard — technically not the character’s name, but I like this better so we’re sticking with it — with her Daily Briefing on all of the various intelligence and national security issues facing the day. As TMZ points out, on this Monday’s episode Heigl debriefed Woodard while Woodard looked over a stack of papers. Moments later, the CIA tweeted this:
President Obama & other key national security policymakers now receive the #PDB in a tablet format. pic.twitter.com/aM6MfzOcNa
— CIA (@CIA) December 2, 2014
And there’s more, too. Again, from TMZ:
In another episode Heigl’s character has a face-to-face meeting with CIA honchos. The Agency tweeted during the show that face-to-face meetings of this sort are extremely dangerous because enemies can target all of them at once. The CIA tweeted the preferable mode of communication is a “dead drop” … where materials are left for the recipient at a prearranged location.
So, if we’re connecting the dots here, this means the United States government currently employs someone whose job description includes going on Twitter to subtweet Katherine Heigl. What a country.