Google had been using satellite images of New Orleans that accurately showed broken levees, flooding and repair efforts. But in the new shots of the Big Easy, cranes, tarps and all indicators of human suffering have disappeared, giving the city the look of a "virtual Potemkin village," according to the AP.

Rep. Brad Miller (D-North Carolina), the chairman of the House Science Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight called the photo swap "airbrushing history" and a "great injustice" to Katrina victims. Miller on Friday asked (.pdf) Google CEO Eric Schmidt to explain why the images were replaced.

Google is innocent. They upgraded to higher resolution pictures that happened to be older. However, the fact that this caused such a stir signifies the importance of public access to satellite imagery, which is itself a fairly recent development. I want GoreSat.