Google bombed for incompetence

This past week a number of great media activists have been working to setup a licensed low power fm radio station at the Houston Astrodome for communication among refugees.

It’s cool and wonderful that they are setting it up. But for a while it looked like it would be blocked, they tried to put the studio inside the actual astrodome but were blocked with lots of fake reasons why the station couldn’t come on the air. One of which the station would consume too-much electricity, the 40 watt transmitter uses less than a light bulb. Then it was that all people in the astrodome needed radio receivers first, so 10,000 or so receivers were found. Then it was those receivers needed to only be tuned to the evacuation radio, because of fear that the black refugees might listen to ‘gangster rap’ which would create unrest and violence in the astrodome. Eventually the radio station was setup in a trailer outside of the dome itself, getting around the control of a single block-headed bureaucrat.

That person who blocked the station was Rita Obey. She was unsuccessful in blocking the station, but in the process she managed to make her name known. Bloggers and media activists of the world were lobbying her to change her mind. To do that her name was reposted around the world. From this week on Rita Obey will be forever associated with this one action she took. Anybody who googles google’s Rita’s name will get the story.

It’s an interesting way of fighting back against anonymous bureaucrats. Make them public, give them a name, put it on the public record what they have done. Perhaps it’s cruel, but everytime she looks to apply for a new job, starts to date somebody, has her kids wonder what people will say about her, the single act at the astrodome will continue with her.

Perhaps next time this happens we can explain to the people the implications of bringing up a grassroots campaign against them. Companies have PR agencies and branding to protect, but in some ways people also are known and have their brands. Their identity. Ah what a brave new world we live in.