Who's Michael Shellenberger?
The curious case of the failed candidate for California governor who magically morphed into an "award-winning" journalist overnight
The Right Way is the #1 conservative blog on Substack — recommended by over 242 other Substack authors!
Recently, I was looking through the work of the House Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government — a committee run by Republicans like Jim Jordan — along with the expert testimony of their witnesses.
This was more than just an academic exercise for me since I was one of the journalists who had actually experienced “the weaponization of the federal government” when I was attacked by America’s (government-supported) corporate media in 2020 for asking President Trump why Dr. Fauci had provided millions in grant money to the Wuhan Lab and when I was deplatformed in 2021 from Twitter for warning people about undisclosed ingredients in the COVID “vaccines.”
One name that kept coming up as an “expert witness” before Congress on government censorship was: Michael Shellenberger.
Which intelligence agency did Michael Shellenberger work for?
What level of security clearance did Michael Shellenberger have?
What kind of government censorship had Michael Shellenberger suffered?
The answer to all of these questions turned out to be: none.
Michael Shellenberger was called as an expert witness before Congress even though he was not actually an expert witness. His written Congressional testimony was impressive — with a granular level of detail that’s only available to experts in the field of national security.
The written testimony did not match the witness.
So I went looking through the biography of Michael Shellenberger.
In 2018, Shellenberger ran as a candidate for California governor as a Democrat. He started a bunch of PR firms linked to environmental causes. He seemed to be a nuclear energy lobbyist who wrote books advocating for nuclear energy for a number of years. In 2022, he ran again as a candidate for California governor — this time as an independent. Then, he started a Substack journalism site called Public at about the same time that he was involved in breaking some of the Twitter Files — along with people like Bari Weiss and Matt Taibbi. Then in 2023, he started showing up at House hearings as an expert on government censorship.
That’s quite a stretch.
Shellenberger had not been a journalist for more than a year when he found himself in Congress as an “expert in censorship.”
Then in November 2023, Shellenberger got a gig as a professor of “Politics, Censorship and Free Speech” at the University of Austin.
How does a guy, with no expertise, testify on government censorship before Congress in May 2023 and September 2023 — and then get hired as a professor in that field two months later? He must have applied to be a professor on censorship before he ever appeared as an expert on censorship.
In sum: Michael Shellenberger is whatever you need him to be on any given day. He could be the governor of California or an environmentalist or a public relations executive or a nuclear energy lobbyist or a government censorship expert or a professor of politics or an award-winning journalist.
He’s a shapeshifter.
Michael Shellenberger in 2017. He’s saving the environment! And nuclear power plants! And California! And journalism!
Another curious thing about Michael Shellenberger appearing as an expert witness before Congress in 2023 is that there’s literally dozens of right-wing journalists and media outlets who were censored by the government on Twitter — Zero Hedge, Gateway Pundit, New York Post — and the House Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government does not want to talk to any of them.
The conservative journalists and the media outlets that were actually banned and deplatformed and censored on social media are being erased from the story.
That’s not a bug — it’s a feature of the work of the House Committee, and of left-wing journalism in general. Are you confused? Sure, the Biden regime has been doing all the heavy lifting in terms of government censorship, but the GOP has been a willing and compliant partner to the First Amendment’s demise all along.
That’s why the “Twitter Files” are full of evidence about the federal government censoring conservative journalists and conservative media outlets — and none of those journalists were contacted or informed about that evidence by Congress.
When President Trump threatened to veto the Defense Authorization bill in 2020 because he wanted to eliminate section 230 protections for Big Tech, the GOP overrode Trump's veto.
The role of the House Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government is to cover for the CIA and DHS and the FBI involved in illegal and unconstitutional activities against American citizens, and that’s exactly what’s happening here.
There’s a CIA phrase for this kind of thing and it’s called: “limited hangout.”
That’s when the “veil of secrecy is shredded and they can no longer rely on a phony cover story to misinform the public, they resort to admitting—sometimes even volunteering—some of the truth while still managing to withhold the key and damaging facts in the case. The public, however, is usually so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further.”
Jim Jordan will keep holding hearings with fresh information — but he’s not going to actually do anything. The reason that our corrupt politicians never actually break up Big Tech monopolies is simple: because our intelligence agencies are hiding behind our Big Tech monopolies.
Big Tech isn't going to submit to any government regulation. Why would it? It has basically fused with Big Intel and Big Government.
It runs everything now.
Support The Last Fearless Journalist!
“Emerald Robinson is one of the most fearless and accurate reporters in America today.” — Gateway Pundit
“She’s got balls made of titanium.” —Steve Bannon
“There are a handful of heroes and heroines right now in history — and Emerald Robinson is one of them.” —Dr. Naomi Wolf
“Emerald is truly one of the great conservative writers of our times. As funny as Mark Twain and as astute as Steve Bannon.” —Viktor K.
“Some journalists write with pens, she writes with knives.” — Vicchus
“You are the female version of Tucker Carlson. You have been prescient about so many things it's almost scary.” —F. Lawrence Coleman
“You and Glenn Greenwald are the best in terms of current journalism. You and Lara Logan in terms of fearlessness!” —Mac T.
“When all is said and done, Emerald is going to be hailed as this century's Edward R. Murrow.” —Don Reed
Emerald and her titanium balls nailed it again.
I saw through Jim Jordan about 18 months ago - when all he kept doing was "tweeting" (whining) about the Dems on various issues from J6 to C19. Talk, talk, talk, post, post, post.
But wait? Aren't you in Congress, Jim? This means you have the power to do something about this. Oh, but you DON'T. You NEVER do anything of substance to take down the Dems and their criminal behavior! Just like most of the rest of the Republicans, even those who claim to be *real conservatives* have no spine, no balls and no convictions.
I'm done with you all. Burn the whole Congress to the ground so we can start over.