The Smoking Gun

The Smoking Gun

Infobox Website
name = The Smoking Gun



caption = Screenshot from The Smoking Gun
url = http://www.thesmokinggun.com
commercial = yes
type =
language = English
registration = none
owner = truTV
author = truTV
launch date = 1997
current status = active
revenue =
slogan = "Paving the paper trail"

The Smoking Gun is a website that posts legal documents, arrest records, and police mugshots on a daily basis. The intent is to bring to the public light information that is damning, shocking, outrageous, or amazing, yet also somewhat obscure or unreported by more mainstream media sources. Most of the site's content revolves around historical and current events, although it also features documents and photos relating to out-of-the-ordinary crimes and people. It is owned by TruTV.

The "smoking gun" name refers to the smoking gun metaphor, which is commonly used to describe an incriminating piece of evidence.

One section of the site is made up entirely of "riders" in the contracts of popular music acts, focusing on the artists' personal demands; some of the publicized demands are either highly self-indulgent or inherently humorous.

The website was founded in 1997 by William Bastone and Daniel Green, former reporters for "The Village Voice". Most of The Smoking Gun's content is obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, and from public records such as court documents. The site has used those requests to assemble a collection of mugshots of current and historical celebrities.

Court TV (now TruTV) purchased The Smoking Gun, as well as its sister website Crime Library, in 2000. In January 2006, The Smoking Gun was the first to report that James Frey fabricated parts of his bestselling memoir, "A Million Little Pieces".

The site published its second book, "The Dog Dialed 911: A Book of Lists from The Smoking Gun", in October 2006.

A series of the same name premiered on Court TV in 2005. The series features some of the site's stories and assorted sketch humor using string puppets. This series was later moved and shown on Adult Swim.

Presently on TruTV (formerly CourtTV), The Smoking Gun sponsors a series called "World's Dumbest Criminals".

External links

* [http://www.thesmokinggun.com The Smoking Gun website]
* [http://www.gelfmagazine.com/archives/an_interview_with_the_smoking_gun.php Smoking Gun Editor William Bastone interview with Gelf Magazine]
* [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/thedogdialed911/index.html "The Dog Dialed 911"]


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