http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smoking_Gun
Commentators
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 through
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.
The cable network
truTV, formerly
Court TV purchased The Smoking Gun, as well as the website
Crime Library, in 2000.[
citation needed] 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.[
citation needed] From March 2008 until January 2011 on 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 was retitled
World's Dumbest... and began covering other topics. As of January 2011, the program was retitled again to
truTV Presents: World's Dumbest...
The site published its second book,
The Dog Dialed 911: A Book of Lists from The Smoking Gun, in October 2006.