Jeremiah Wright Bill Moyers

Guide Note

Bill Moyers interviewed Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a segment airing Friday, April 25, 2008, on the PBS show, Bill Moyers Journal. In the interview, Wright discussed what led him to the pulpit and what brought him under public scrutiny.

Jeremiah Wright is the former pastor of the Trinity United Church Of Christ, of which Barack Obama is a prominent member. Several videos of Wright's sermons are posted online, and some have been used in "sound bites" wherein Wright makes disparaging remarks about the United States. Wright calls the public attacks "unfair and devious" and says that his words have been taken out of context.

Bill Moyers is the host of PBS's Bill Moyers Journal. Moyers was the White House Press Secretary during the Johnson administration, from 1965-1967.

Fast Facts

1. Check local listings for air time
2. Wright claims he doesn't speak about politics with Obama
3. States he never heard Obama repeat or endorse any of the remarks

1. "When something is taken like a sound bite for a political purpose and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public, that's not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do, which is to paint me as some sort of fanatic or as the learned journalist from the New York Times called me, a 'wackadoodle.'"—Quote via The Huffington Post
2. "[Obama's race speech] went down very simply. He's a politician, I'm a pastor. We speak to two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they're two different worlds."—Quote via The Huffington Post
3. I do what I do. [Obama] does what politicians do. So that's what happened in Philadelphia where he had to respond to the sound bytes, he responded as a politician."—Quote via The Huffington Post