The Smoking Gun

For the topic, see Smoking gun.

The Smoking Gun

URL	thesmokinggun.com
Slogan	Paving the paper trail
Commercial?	yes
Registration	none
Available language(s)	English
Owner	truTV (by Turner Broadcasting)
Created by	William Bastone and Daniel Green
Launched	1997
Current status	active

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 and is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment digital network.

The 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, while others are extremely simple.

The website was founded in 1997 by William Bastone and Daniel Green, former reporters for The Village Voice, and graphic designer Barbara Glauber. Most of The Smoking Gun's content is obtained 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 the website Crime Library, in 2000.

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.

From March 2008 until January 2011 on Court TV's successor, truTV, The Smoking Gun sponsored a cable television series called The Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest.... The series was originally known as World's Dumbest Criminals, but later was retitled World's Dumbest... and became known for covering other topics. As of January 2011, the program was retitled again to truTV Presents: World's Dumbest...

Investigations

The Smoking Gun has recently begun to organize in-depth investigations of criminal activity. In August 2009, the site outed members of Pranknet, a virtual community who were notorious for tricking hotel and fast-food restaurant employees into setting off fire alarms, engaging fire-suppression systems, and engaging in humiliating acts such as disrobing and consuming urine. The group, whose members include 2 convicted child molestors, also engaged in threatening telephone harassment by placing fake Craigslist ads and shouting racial epithets and obscene language at people responding to their ads. Additionally, they responded to Craigslist ads placed by young mothers selling household goods, then when they had the sellers address, stated that they were on their way over to rape them and murder their children.

Perhaps their most famous investigation was the 2006 discovery of widespread fabrication in James Frey's alleged memoir A Million Little Pieces. This investigation led to a very public rebuke of Frey by Oprah Winfrey who had previously endorsed Frey's book as part of her Oprah's Book Club. Frey's book, describing his alleged years of drug and alcohol abuse and subsequent recovery, contained a number of descriptions of criminal or otherwise outrageous incidents. The Smoking Gun says that it originally became interested in the accuracy of Frey's account when they had difficulty tracking down mug shots from his various alleged arrests. After discovering one photograph, the web site was unable to locate any others from his numerous claims of arrest. A subsequent investigation revealed that Frey had fabricated or exaggerated many of the more noteworthy claims in his book. The Smoking Gun concluded that most of these fabrications were done in order to make Frey's early life seem more sad and depraved and thus contrast it with his later recovery from drug abuse and success as a writer. One arrest that the Smoking Gun highlighted in particular was a vehicular stop which Frey claimed involved his hitting a patrol officer with his car and later having to be restrained by several other policemen. The Smoking Gun's investigation revealed that he had merely parked his car partially on the sidewalk and had obediently complied with officer's instructions. The web site also took issue with Frey's recounting of the death of Melissa Sanders, referred to as "Michelle" in the book. Sanders, and a friend Jane Hall, who were students at the same high school as Frey, were both killed when the car they were riding in was struck by a locomotive. Frey eliminates the other victim from his recounting, and, according to the Smoking Gun, fabricated a close friendship with Sanders in order to dramatize his early life in small town Michigan.

External links

• The Smoking Gun website
• The Smoking Gun Presents... website on TruTV.com
• Smoking Gun Editor William Bastone interview with Gelf Magazine
• The Dog Dialed 911
• "CNN WILLIAM BASTONE, EDITOR, THESMOKINGGUN.COM: He was arrested 13 or 14 times"
• "VH1: The Smoking Gun admits FBI documents were fabricated"