As discussed in this recommended diary by JLowe, Google had stirred up suspicions and not a few tin foil hats when they replaced post-Katrina images of New Orleans with pre-Katrina images on Google Maps.
Well. They've changed them back again. People-power? Youbetcha.
Of course, the AP is taking the credit:
An Associated Press article on Thursday highlighted the changes, leading a U.S. House subcommittee to accuse Google of "airbrushing history" for depicting a New Orleans and Mississippi Gulf Coast without hurricane damage.
More below the fold:
But that's all right.
What's not all right is John Hanke's (Google director for satellite imagery) insulting comment about the criticism:
"Given that the changes that affected New Orleans happened many months ago, we were a bit surprised by some of these recent comments," Hanke wrote in his blog. "Make no mistake, this wasn't any effort on our part to rewrite history."
Since the "changes" happened so many months ago it's okay to pretend all is hunky-dory again? WTF?! Shades of "Baghdad John" McCain, I'm thinkin'!
Meanwhile, some towns that were obliterated completely are still alive and well according to Google Maps, so there's still a major problem as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps if Hanke had lived in one of those towns he'd have a bit more respect for how they're treated.
[Updated] Brad Miller's (D-NC) letter to Google here (warning: PDF file). H/T to Polecat in the comments. And see Polecat's diary for more details about Rep. Miller's efforts.