This week Vice Magazine celebrated the official launch of Vice.com, The Definitive Guide to Enlightening Information. Previously Vice’s online presence resided under viceland.com and VBS.tv because a domain squatter bought vice.com “when most people thought the World Wide Web was a Nintendo game,” according to the Vice article Finally, All Our Crap Is in One Place. In the video below Spike Jonze goes on the road with dagger-wearing Vice co-founder Shane Smith to discuss the origins of the magazine and Smith’s criminal-cum-huckster rise to become “the tallest of the midgets.” Vice’s co-founder Suroosh Alvi described their unique style of reporting in a Wired Magazine interview:

“…traditional journalism always aspires to objectivity, and since day one with the magazine we never believed in that...Our ethos is subjectivity with real substantiation. I don't think you see that on CNN.”

Strangely, now you actually can see Vice on CNN. In 2010 CNN cut a deal to broadcast Vice’s gonzo journalism from its website and mobile apps stating: “We believe this unique reporting approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers.”

The Vice.com launch party was held at their Brooklyn headquarters and featured headliner Rick Ross.