Returning in the 1990s to be Mother Jones’ editor-in-chief, Klein directed exposés of Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, the top 400 political contributors in the U.S. and Donald Sipple, the Republicans' star image-maker.
The investigative series on Speaker Gingrich led to his unprecedented public reprimand by the United States House of Representatives and a $300,000 fine.
Klein's first published article, “A Cuban Journal”, appeared in the Winter 1970 Columbia Forum; it critiqued his experiences cutting sugar cane with the Venceremos Brigade in Cuba.
[8] His article “Esalen Slides Off The Cliff” shook up that human potential retreat perched on the California coast by showing its co-founder being duped by a psychic.
A satiric look at Valley's top powerbrokers provoked ire from the newspaper's publisher, Tony Ridder, and also led to the founding of the cheeky magazine Upside.
Klein directed a series of exposés, called “Countdown to Indictment”, that dissected House Speaker Newt Gingrich's empire and its shady financing.
With the speaker in charge of the House, the Committee's final hearing was unilaterally reduced from five days to one afternoon, the Friday before the presidential inauguration.
[15] In 1996, Klein published a 40-page investigative package on the tobacco industry's attempt to roll back regulation by electing as president Bob Dole.
[17] In 1997 Klein accepted and fortified an investigative piece on Republican image-maker Donald Sipple, who had crafted “strong character campaigns”[This quote needs a citation] for Bob Dole, George Bush and his son George W., and Pete Wilson while trashing the personal reputations of their Democratic opponents, such as Bill Clinton, Ann Richards and Kathleen Brown.
[18] When the exposé appeared in Mother Jones, Sipple responded with a $12.6 million defamation suit, but both ex-wives vouched for the accuracy of the article.
A special issue on spirituality [21] published during the 1997 holiday season was praised by columnists such as The Washington Post’s William Raspberry[22] and sold well, but also led to Klein’s resignation from Mother Jones because of the parent board’s displeasure.
[7] With Paolo Pontoniere, Klein authored pieces about secret trade-offs made by the U.S. prior to the Iraq War and about the mysterious deaths of two European telecom engineers immediately after they discovered sophisticated bugs planted in the hubs of their telecommunications systems.
From Washington, D.C., to Berkeley, liberals are divided over whether to adhere to 1960s-rooted values or to rethink approaches toward achieving the goals of feminism, affirmative action and other causes.”[23] Klein's criticism that liberals’ continuing support of affirmative action was eroding their moral credibility came under fire from many, including C. Eric Lincoln, Derrick Bell[24] and the anthology Multiculturalism in the United States.