Michael Shellenberger
What does this mean?How we determined this rating:
- Editorial Review: Apr 2025
- AllSides has low or initial confidence in this bias rating.
Unless otherwise noted, this bias rating refers only to online news coverage, not TV, print, or radio content.
Learn about our bias rating methodsAbout Michael Shellenberger's Bias Rating
Michael Shellenberger is a author source with an AllSides Media Bias Rating™ of Lean Right.
What a "Lean Right" Rating Means
Sources with an AllSides Media Bias Rating of Lean Right display media bias in ways that moderately align with conservative, traditional, libertarian, or right-wing thought and/or policy agendas. A Lean Right bias is a moderately conservative rating on the political spectrum.
Learn more about Lean Right ratingsBias Reviews
We use multiple methods to analyze sources. Learn how we rate media bias.AllSides Moves Michael Shellenberger Bias Rating from Center to Lean Right Following April 2025 Small Group Editorial Review
AllSides panelists on the left, center, and right moved Michael Shellenberge's bias rating from Center to Lean Right in April 2025. Shellenberger runs the media outlet Public.
The Lean Right reviewer said Shellenberger was "hard to rate" due to some views of his aligning with the left, pointing to a 2022 HuffPost article that called him a "centrist" and noted his support for abortion rights, gun safety regulation, the $15 minimum wage, universal health care, collective bargaining rights, and alternatives to incarceration for drug-related violations of the law. Panelists determined his views aligned more with the right than the left — pointing to his support for Trump and his tariffs, anti-woke stance, opposition to transgender medical procedures, giving him a rating of 1.2 on the AllSides Media Bias Meter.
Shellenberger has switched parties; he was a Democratic candidate for governor in the 2018 California gubernatorial election; in the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election, he backed recalling Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and endorsed former mayor of San Diego Kevin Faulconer, who is a Republican. In 2022, he ran as an independent in the 2022 California gubernatorial election. Wikipedia has Shellenberge listed as being part of the Democrat Party before 2022 and an Independent post-2022.
Shellenberger has reportedly (per Wall Street Jourhnal) described himself as “bleeding-heart liberal when it comes to caring for the vulnerable, a libertarian when it comes to being passionate about freedom, but a conservative when it comes to taking care of our civilization.”
Shellenberger's views:
- in favor of Trump's early 2025 tariffs, stating they are "needed to reduce our dangerous dependency on other nations and increase our manufacturing of the goods we need for national security, economic security, and societal wellbeing"
- anti transgender medical procedures
- pro school choice
- pro fracking, pro nuclear
- "acknowledges the presence of a warming world without committing to reducing fossil fuels," per E&E News by Politico.
- supports abortion rights
- supports universal health care
- supports gun regulation
- supports a $15 minimum wage
- supports collective bargaining rights
- supports alternatives to incarceration for drug-related crimes
- Protestant Christian
- wrote a book titled "San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities"
- critical of San Francisco's homelessness policies
- argues for technological innovation to address climate issues
- anti-"environmental alarmism"
Confidence Level
Confidence is determined by how many reviews have been applied and consistency of data.As of June 2026, AllSides has low or initial confidence in our Lean Right rating for Michael Shellenberger. If we perform more bias reviews and gather consistent data, this confidence level will increase.