I am 0% afraid. I am 100% committed.

The threats are starting to arrive. LFG.

I knew this would happen.

The threats are beginning to arrive to this site, via e-mails and comments. Mostly mild stuff. Always anonymous. You better watch your back and Are you sure you know what you’re getting into.

Here’s my reply: LFG.

I mean it. Let’s fucking go.

One of the results of 30-plus years in journalism is having your skin morph into steel. I have been threatened before. By large men, by steroided men, by men who could tear me in half. I have knocked on strange doors, walked through terrifying neighborhoods, stared down folks who aspired to rip out my innards.

LFG.

I started this website because the way crazies win elections in Orange County is by presenting as sane and normal. It’s reasonable to vote for a soccer mom. It’s unreasonable to vote for a soccer mom who runs for office because, “God sat me down the other day and told me it’s his will.” It’s reasonable to have questions about trans athletes. It’s unreasonable for an elected official with questions about trans athletes to attend a high school track meet and berate a teenager and that teenager’s parents. It’s reasonable to enjoy free bubbles from someone in the midst of an election. It’s unreasonable for the bubble distributor to be a member of a marketing scam pseudo-Christian cult with a stated goal of converting the masses.

I am here because, as a product of legacy media, I grasp how the decay and death of legacy media has allowed the hard right to turn fiction into truth and truth into fiction. No one at the Orange County Register or Los Angeles Times is coming to save us. No reporter will be attending the next Huntington Beach City Council meeting or Capo Unified School Board session. The wackadoos know this, and it has emboldened their wackadoo-ness.

It’s some terrifying shit,

•••

The other day someone said to me, “You need to introduce yourself.”

“Introduce myself?” I said.

“Yeah,” she replied. “People are starting to know The Truth OC. But they don’t know who you are—and that’s sort of important.”

So …

My name is Jeff Pearlman. This is me. I’m a native New Yorker who moved to California with my wife and two kids 11 years ago. We love it here in 8,000 different ways—the weather, the sights, the proximity to the ocean, the magnificence of the state, fruit growing on trees. On and on. I was born in the Big Apple, but this is where I’m meant to be.

I am employed as a writer, and have been so since graduating from the University of Delaware in 1994. My first job was as a staff reporter for The Tennessean, Nashville’s daily newspaper. I was there for 2 1/2 years before jumping to Sports Illustrated, where I worked primarily as a baseball writer. I’ve also worked for (among other spots) Newsday, ESPN.com, Yahoo.com and The Athletic. My current gig is writing books: I have authored 10 so far, seven of which wound up making the New York Times best-seller’s list. My 11th book (and first non-sports offering) drops in October. It’s “Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur.”

My political experience is minimal. Roughly 1 1/2 decades ago I ran (and lost—as I knew I would) for a city council seat in New Rochelle, N.Y. Several years ago I started a website called Crazy Dana, to expose the nuttiness of former Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. I’m liberal, but not in the I’m-always-right sorta way that turns so many folks off. In fact, that’s one of my biggest pet peeves: People in politics who insist they’re always right and the opposition is always wrong. I try and see the nuances. Like, I understand why folks are pro-life or anti-gay marriage. I don’t agree with those positions, but I get them. I believe that’s incredibly important: To hear opposing stances and empathize with the view-holder. To even being open to changing your opinion.

So why The Truth OC? Hmm …because something has snapped in this country—and in Orange County—that feels simultaneously alarming and creepy. This used to be a place where right-wing Republicans were all about Ronald Reagan and lower taxes. Which … was fine. Not my thing, but these weren’t folks screaming about the earth being flat, vaccines being the devil’s work and school librarians being woke groomers. I don’t quite understand why or how this happened, but we’re now surrounded by a species of zombie-like slaves to a terrifying form of group think (minus thought). Y’all know what I’m referring to—the glazed-over eyes, the botoxed foreheads, the unhinged God-loves-us-all-but-I’m-gonna-fuck-you-up-by-doxing-you energy. You’ve seen the Instagram feeds. The school board members. The city council freaks.

I could no longer just sit back and watch the infection spread. Not without trying to battle back in the name of reason and thought.

•••

Some quick things I need y’all to know.

• This website is 100 percent free—and always will be.

• There is a subscription option, and it gets you nothing. Literally nothing. There will be no T-shirts, no lunches for members. I’ve raised (shockingly) roughly $12,000 in donations—and 100 percent of it will go back to site expenses and (mainly) political causes. I will be 100 percent transparent in how the dough is used. Thus far I’ve spent a whopping $178.65 on stickers to hand out at rallies and events.

• Again, this website is 100 percent free. The goal is to spread the word and raise awareness.

• My e-mail is datruthoc@gmail.com. I am always open to ideas, suggestions, pitches. If you have something you wanna write, tell me.

• You can follow The Truth OC on TikTok at this link. We’ll shortly be stepping up our social game with Facebook and Instagram and Bluesky pages. [Fuck X]

• I have so appreciated the support thus far. Like many of you, I’m angry. I don’t fully grasp how people fall under the sway of a lifelong grifter like Donald Trump. It’s bewildering to me. In particular, how people of faith can look at the “grab ‘em by the pussies” guy and think, “That’s my dude.”

I oftentimes feel lost, confused, sad.

So here I am.

Trying to bring it.

Thank you.

— Jeff