Wikipedia's first sentence called it “longtime washington”. Today it says “american political commentator and author”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
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The opening as it read in 2005
Joe Klein (b. 1946 ) is a longtime Washington, D.C. journalist, perhaps best known for his novel Primary Colors , a thinly-veiled portrayal of Bill Clinton 's first presidential campaign.1Klein graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in American civilization. In 1969 , Klein began reporting for the Essex County Newspapers in Massachusetts . In 1972 , he reported for Boston's WGBH and until 1974 he was also the news editor for Boston's The Real Paper . He was a contributing editor for Rolling Stone from 1975 to 1980 and Washington bureau chief from 1975 to 1977 . A Life in 1980 and Payback: Five Marines After Vietnam in 1984 . He was a political columnist for New York from 1987 to 1992 where he won the Peter Khiss Award for reporting on the 1989 race for Mayor of New York . In May 1992 he joined Newsweek and wrote the column "Public Lives", which won a National Headliner Award in 1994 . Newsweek also won a National Magazine Award for their coverage of Bill Clinton 's 1992 victory. From 1992 to 1996 he was also a consultant for CBS . In January 1996 , he anonymously published the novel Primary Colors , based on the 1992 Democratic presidential primary . It spent 9 weeks as number one on the New York Times bestseller list . When Donald Foster correctly identified Klein as the novel's author, Klein denied it and publicly attacked Foster for publishing untrue and irresponsible speculation -- before finally admitting that the "speculation" was entirely correct. In December 1996 , he joined The New Yorker to write the "Letter from Washington" column. In 2000 he published The Running Mate , a sequel of sorts to Primary Colors and he published The Natural: Bill Clinton's Misunderstood Presidency in March 2002 . In January 2003 , he joined Time Magazine to write a column called "In the Arena".2 He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former Guggenheim fellow . He lives with his wife and two children in Westchester County, New York , and is also the father of two adult sons.3
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 16317268.
The opening as it stood in 2010 16 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Joe Klein (born September 7, 1946) is a longtime Washington, D.C. and New York journalist and columnist, known for his novel Primary Colors , an anonymously written roman à clef portraying Bill Clinton 's first presidential campaign. Klein is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former Guggenheim Fellow . Since 2003 he has been a contributor at the current affairs Time news group.In April 2006, he published Politics Lost , a book on what he calls the "pollster-consultant industrial complex".He has also written articles and book reviews for The New Republic , The New York Times , The Washington Post , LIFE and Rolling Stone .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 370533790.
The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Joe Klein (born September 7, 1946) is an American journalist and columnist.He is the political columnist for Time magazine and is known for his novel Primary Colors , an anonymously written roman à clef portraying Bill Clinton 's first presidential campaign. Klein is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former Guggenheim Fellow . In April 2006 he published Politics Lost , a book on what he calls the "pollster–consultant industrial complex." He has also written articles and book reviews for The New Republic , The New York Times , The Washington Post , Life , and Rolling Stone .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 660755583.
The opening as it stood in 2020
American journalist For persons with similar names, see Joe Klein (disambiguation) .Joe Klein (born September 7, 1946) is an American political commentator and author.He is best known for his work as a columnist for Time magazine and his novel Primary Colors , an anonymously written roman à clef portraying Bill Clinton 's 1992 presidential campaign . Klein is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former Guggenheim Fellow . In April 2006 he published Politics Lost , a book on what he calls the "pollster–consultant industrial complex." He has also written articles and book reviews for The New Republic , The New York Times , The Washington Post , Life , and Rolling Stone .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 958499222.
The opening as it stood in 2025
American journalist (born 1946) For persons with similar names, see Joe Klein (disambiguation) . Joe Klein (born September 7, 1946) is an American political commentator and author. He is best known for his work as a columnist for Time magazine and his novel Primary Colors , an anonymously written roman à clef portraying Bill Clinton 's 1992 presidential campaign . Klein was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former Guggenheim Fellow . In April 2006 he published Politics Lost , a book on what he calls the "pollster–consultant industrial complex." He has also written articles and book reviews for The New Republic , The New York Times , The Washington Post , Life , and Rolling Stone .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1297582822. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “longtime washington”. Today it says “american political commentator and author”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
longtime washington
Now
american political commentator and author
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
