The Internet loves Tamara Hoover

We didn’t realize what a big deal the Tamara Hoover story was until we posted our snarky little post a few days ago. After doing so, our servers got absolutely hammered by people  probably searching for (now removed) photos of the Austin school teacher.

Jeff Beckham reports that “Tamara Hoover” has had the #1 slot for most searched term on Technorati for the past few days, beating out even the World Cup. On Bloglines, she is responsible for 3 of the top 10 most searched for terms.

The big question is, are all these people really just looking for pictures of a naked art teacher? Or is some of this interest due the actual political, first amendment ramifications of the story?

If you’re still looking for naked photos, good luck. Photographer Celesta Danger has removed all the nude ones. Here’s a statement she issued via Tamara Hoover’s MySpace blog:

“After Tamara was fired from her job as an AISD high school art teacher, I am removing many images of her for the time being. With all the media attention, I am now having images downloaded and used without my permission and unfortunately, Im seeing them being used out of context. There are those wishing to use and post my images of Tamara in a crude, lascivious manner and some are even creating fake profiles using my images. Not to mention the Austin American Statesman running an article this morning noting how quick and easy it was for them to break into my Flickr account and access my Private images.
I have recieved messages about removing my images, posting my images, and just being a poor artist in general.
It is important to note that none of the criticism Ive received has affected my decision take down some of our images.”

If the inability to find nude Tamara Hoover photos is driving you crazy, you might try looking in the comments sections of certain Austin related blogs.

Tip to: Is This Really Journalism, one of the first blogs to cover this story.