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The Smoking Gun

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Internet Website

The Resume

    (1997- )
    Criminal justice website
    Created by William Bastone and Daniel Green
    Provides public access of police mugshots, arrest records, legal documents and assorted snippets of crime news and current events
    Slogan: Paving the paper trail
    Site inspired the writing of the books 'The Smoking Gun: A Dossier of Secret, Surprising, and Salacious Documents (2001),' and 'The Dog Dialed 911: A Book of Lists from The Smoking Gun (2005)'

Why The Smoking Gun might be annoying:

    They use the Freedom of Information Act to snoop into people's lives and download the info.
    Mugshots are a popular feature, and most are of ordinary citizens being seen on one of the worst days of their lives.
    Bastone and Green sold the site to Court TV (now truTV) in 2000.
    Their cable series on truTV, originally named 'The Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest Criminals,' dropped the 'Criminals' from its title to include non-criminal behavior.

Why The Smoking Gun might not be annoying:

    Site founders Bastone and Green are former writers for New York City's famed newspaper The Village Voice.
    One site feature shows contracts of riders for some famed musicians, offering some of their ridiculous, humorous, and self-indulgent demands to perform.
    In 2006, it broke the story of the extreme fabrication used in James Frey's bestselling book 'A Million Little Pieces,' one that led to a public apology and confession of made-up instances on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show.'
    They exposed a 2008 story featured in The Los Angeles Times concerning the death of Tupac Shakur as being based on forged information, leading The Times to print an unprecedented and lengthy apology to its readers, admitting to the deception.
    In 2009 they helped expose members of Pranknet, a virtual community immersed in criminal acts of harassment, property damage and overall delinquent behavior (noting two of its members are convicted child molesters).
    Unlike WikiLeaks, information that would compromise the safety and national security of the U.S. is never shown.

Credit: Scar Tactics


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 24 Votes: 45.83% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 40 Votes: 47.50% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 24 Votes: 41.67% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 17 Votes: 58.82% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 99 Votes: 67.68% Annoying