Stephen Bates is Literary Editor of the Wilson Quarterly. He was formerly a Senior Fellow of the Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy Studies, where he wrote a monograph on "Realigning Journalism with Democracy: The Hutchins Commission, Its Times, and Ours."

His books are Battleground: One Mother's Crusade, the Religious Right, and the Struggle for Control of Our Classrooms (Poseidon Press/Simon & Schuster, 1993; Henry Holt paperback, 1994); If No News, Send Rumors: Anecdotes of American Journalism (St. Martin's Press, 1989; Henry Holt paperback, 1991); The Media and Congress (Bates ed., Publishing Horizons, 1987); The Spot: The Rise of Political Advertising on Television, with Edwin Diamond (MIT Press, 1984; revised editions, 1988, 1992).

Among his many articles are quite a number on the press, including Who is the Journalist's Client?, Media Ethics (Fall 1985); To Fix the Press, (on the Hutchins Commission) American Heritage (Oct. 1994); Separation of Church and Press?, Forbes MediaCritic (Summer 1994); The American Newspaper at 300, American Enterprise (September-October 1990), excerpted in Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 25, 1990; Political Ads: Journalists as Jurors, American Enterprise (July-August 1990); Does the Press Have Clout When the Voters Turn Out?, Adweek (April 1984); But Don't They Get Their News From Television?, Boston Observer (Dec. 24, 1982).

He is a prolific writer on other subjects, too, including cyberspace (see, e.g., Censorship in Cyberspace, Playboy (June 1996), and Alt.Many.Of.These.Newsgroups.Are.Repellent, Weekly Standard (Oct. 30, 1995)(cover)); political advertising (see, e.g., Final Appeal, with Edwin Diamond, in TV Guide (Oct. 31, 1992); Damned Spots, with Edwin Diamond, in New Republic (Sept. 7 & 14, 1992); The Media in Campaign '84: The Ads, with Edwin Diamond, in Public Opinion (December-January 1985)); religion and politics (see, e.g., The Christian Coalition Nobody Knows, Weekly Standard (Sept. 25, 1995); A Textbook of Virtues, (on character education in public schools) New York Times (Jan. 8, 1995); and How the Fundamentalist Right Plays the Victim Game, Washington Post (July 17, 1994)); and law (see, e.g., Flag Burning and the First Amendment, The World and I (July 1991); United States v. Superman, National Review (Feb. 11, 1991); Ignore a Menorah, New Republic (July 31, 1989)).

Bates has been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (1991-92, 1996); a research associate at the American Enterprise Institute (1990); and a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School, which is where he received his J.D. in 1987, graduating cum laude. He graduated from Harvard College in 1982 magna cum laude.

He has worked as associate independent counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr (Whitewater)(April 1995-current), as a law clerk to Judge James L. Buckley on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and as a research assistant to Laurence Tribe at Harvard Law School.

Among his awards are the American Bar Association Certificate of Merit (1994) and the Religious Public Relations Council Wilbur Award for best nonfiction book of year (1993)(both for the book Battleground) and the Frank Luther Mott-Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award for The Spot (1985).